Father, son accused of assaulting four
MFUNDO PILISO and BONGANI FUZILE
A father and son, accused of attacking a widow and her three daughters, are set to appear in the Alice magistrate’s court on Tuesday.
Phindiwe Jack, 53, said when she woke up on Saturday morning at their Nothenge village home outside Alice, she saw a dead dog dumped in front of her door — something she registered as “a threat”.
She said two men accused her of poisoning the animal before they attacked her and her daughters.
Eastern Cape police spokesperson Captain Khaya Tonjeni confirmed a case of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm had been opened against the two men, aged 20 and 58. They were remanded in custody.
Jack said she initially thought the dog was a goat that was sleeping on her front step.
“I tried to remove it but it was not moving. I later realised this was a dog. I was shocked,” she said.
“I could not understand who could do this to me. Dumping a dead dog or any animal is a threat in our society,” she said.
According to Jack, she called over a young boy passing by her house to remove the dog.
She said as the boy was approaching her house, a “young man” ran up behind him, shouting that he should not remove the animal.
“I asked him [the young man] why he was saying that. He said I had poisoned their family dog.
“His father then came and both of them attacked me,” the woman alleged.
She said her children, all girls, came out the house after hearing the commotion.
“They tried to intervene and they were also assaulted,” she claimed.
She said there was no proof she had poisoned the dog.
“They are targeting my house because they know that I am a widow who has no male person to protect me and my children.
“I am vulnerable and these people can do anything to harm me. There’s no proof that I killed their dog.
“Why would I do that?” Jack’s daughter Bulelwa, 21, said one of the men had stripped off the towel she was wearing.
She said she did not recall what happened next as she was kicked in the head and then blacked out.
“Everything happened so fast it was like we were in a movie,” Bulelwa said.