LOOKING BACK

A police officer, Captain Oelof Marais, this week told a magistrate that a 15-year-old girl,

Miss Elizabeth Gericke, had signed a statement she had made to him in which she allegedly admitted having had relations with 17 men. The court found the signature was a forgery. This was the climax to a case in the Magistrate’s Court at Taungs, in the Northern Cape. The magistrate said Marais was an untrustworthy witness. On July 15 1971 Miss Gericke, then 15, laid a charge against a police constable alleging he had relations with her when she was under the age of consent. She made her statement to Marais, which was handed to the Attorney-General. The statement contained an alleged admission by the girl that she had intercourse with 17 men before she had relations with the constable. The Attorney-General decided to prosecute the constable. July 14 1974

FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES 25 YEARS AGO

The SPCA monitor who videotaped the torture of the Tuli elephants on a farm outside Brits has spoken of his horror at the cruelty he witnessed. Andries Venter, 25, who made the tape while monitoring the treatment of 14 elephants held at a property owned by African Game Services, said one incident in particular, captured on video as evidence against the mahouts, or trainers, continues to torment him. “The mahout walked into the boma with a thin, whippy stick and beat Kelly [a juvenile female] for literally eight to 10 minutes, continuously. Kelly started bellowing and urinating continuously and her back legs kept buckling under her. There were cuts on her side and rump.” Some of Venter’s horrific footage, taped on May 3 this year, was seen by viewers on Carte Blanche last Sunday. — July 11 1999