‘Help me solve cab attack’
Sanet de Lange calls on witnesses to come forward following brutal assault
FROM partying with friends and posing for pictures to waking up bloodied and bruised on a hospital bed. Sanet de Lange could not in her worst fears have imagined what last Thursday night would hold for her.
A few days after the attack, she was holding the blood-stained clothing she had worn the night on which she was brutally assaulted after getting into a cab.
The teenager is hoping her attackers are brought to justice so that other girls won’t experience the same fate.
She was attacked by two men after getting into a cab in the early hours of Friday morning and woke up in hospital with bruises all over her body and a gash to her right temple.
She said she had felt safe going to the club that night because it was was reserved for under-18s.
“They have the under-18s on every Thursday and I usually go there because that’s the only time I can get in.
“I really want them to get caught, so I can save other girls as well. It’s another Tiger Tiger night and what if another girl is a victim, because I am only one girl and there are so many girls like me that go to Tiger Tiger,” Sanet said, referring to the Claremont club’s student night held every Thursday.
She dared not wonder what could happen if another girl is not as lucky as she had been.
“I think they may have done it before, but I spoke up and what if there are more girls that got raped but don’t come forward because they are too shy.”
Yesterday, her mother said police took her statement for the first time and did not allow the family to view CCTV footage capturing the incident.
“I want to really see it, so I can know what went on. My mom tried to fish from them (police) to see what was going on.”
Her mother said they were hoping to view the footage as she believes it would help put the incident behind them.
“They say there is nothing on the footage, but I am not going to rest until I see it. I will put pressure on them. I told them this morning that they are being evasive. I am a mother and I need to know these things so we can work through it,” her mother said.
Sanet senior said they “definitely” want the perpetrators to get caught adding that she hopes there will be justice for the 14-yearold girl who was raped and beaten in Grabouw last Saturday, saying the attack was unacceptable.
“Everybody wants them to get caught and the more she (Sanet junior) hears, the more she wants to know who hurt her like that and it will come out.”
Security camera footage obtained by Jack Brice, the private investigator hired by the family, shows Sanet hovering around the entrance of the club. She said she thinks she may have been looking for a lift home. She appears skittish and panicked. Sanet told the Cape Argus she remembers just wanting to get home.
She is seen speaking to a bouncer at the club and also other patrons who were leaving the club.
At one point, a man is seen grabbing her
arm as she tried to move back into the club.
He was one of the men seen leaving moments after she did.
The group of three men seemed to be heading in the same direction as she was.
Despite seeing the footage the teen does not remember the few minutes she spent outside the club.
She is hoping one of the patrons she had spoken to during that time, including the men seen leaving at roughly the same time as she did, would come forward and reveal what they know about the final few minutes before she was viciously attacked.
Police spokesman LieutenantColonel André Traut said an “assault to commit grievous bodily harm” case was being investigated. There is also an investigating into alleged “unprofessional behaviour levelled against members attached to Rondebosch police station”.
This relates to allegations that Sanet’s unconscious body was thrown into the back of a police van before being transported to the police station. The officers allegedly thought she was dead. “Our investigation is yet to be finalised and no departmental action has been instituted,” said Traut.