Talk of the Town

Alison’s talk on trauma – and recovery – uplifts audience

- ROB KNOWLES

THE survivor of a cowardly rape and attempted murder in Port Elizabeth in 1994, which became headline news around the world, is now a highly regarded inspiratio­nal speaker and spoke at the hugely successful Sunshine Coast Hospice fundraiser at the Royal Port Alfred Golf Club on Saturday evening.

Twenty-three years after the horrific attack, Alison Botha is able to reveal the secret of not only how to survive, but how to thrive. Botha, who has also published a book,

on the events of that night and also produced a movie of her ordeal, described the attack and, more importantl­y, what she did to survive.

“I became a speaker almost by accident,” she said. “I had several interviews for newspapers and TV news, and then I was asked to tell my story as an inspiratio­n to others, and I discovered that I loved it. I hope what I have to say is an inspiratio­n to others. In fact, if only one person is inspired at every talk I give then I feel I have done my job.”

Botha has travelled to 35 countries to spread her message. “It was possibly the best thing that ever happened to me,” she told her astonished audience. “Without what happened to me I would be a different person, and I wouldn’t be here talking to you,” she said.

It was December 1994, shortly after the country’s first all-inclusive democratic elections, and Botha was getting into her car when a man climbed in and told her to move over.

“This was Port Elizabeth, not Johannesbu­rg where all the crime happened. We never locked our doors or looked around before getting into our cars,” she said.

“He drove and said he had to use the car to find a man who had stolen his TV. I didn’t feel I was in any immediate danger.”

She didn’t know that the two perpetrato­rs, Frans du Toit, 26, and Theuns Kruger, 19, had been braaing that night and had decided to pick up a woman, rape and kill her.

They stopped the car on a lonely beach road and Botha realised she was in trouble. “We want sex,” Du Toit said.

Botha said she had not even considered jumping out of the car when it was moving. “They only do that in the movies,” she said.

“I decided not to fight, although I have now taken so many self-defence classes that I would never get myself into that position again. I kept on thinking, ‘this is not you, it’s just your body’. I honestly believe it was that moment that my healing began.”

She was then strangled, closing her windpipe until she passed out. As she lost consciousn­ess Kruger looked her in the eyes and said, “Sorry.”

He then took a knife and, according to his own confession, stabbed her 36 times in her lower abdomen, apparently an attempt to destroy her womanhood. The pair then slashed her throat 16 times from side to side, dragged her out of the car and left her for dead. The strangulat­ion she had endured had crushed her windpipe closed, but the slashing of her throat had again opened her airway and she was able to breathe once more.

On regaining consciousn­ess she felt as though she were in a dream. Then the reality of her situation hit her hard.

“I knew I was going to die. I lay there and decided to write the names of my killers in the sand. I also wrote another message, ‘I love you mom’ and put a box around it. Even when I was dying I wanted to be neat and tidy,” she joked.

It was about 18m to the road, and Botha attempted to crawl there and wait for a passing car. Sure enough, as she began her journey a car did pass.

“It didn’t stop but it made me realise that if one car passed on the road, then there would be others,” she said.

She then began to move and realised her intestines were dragging on the floor, so she quickly pushed them back into her abdomen and covered them with a shirt. She attempted to stand, but then found that the muscles holding her head upright were severed, and her head rolled backwards. She was forced to hold in her stomach with one hand and her head with the other as she finally made it to the road.

“I decided to just lie in the middle of the road and hope that someone stopped for me,” said Botha.

One car did stop but, after waiting a little while it drove off. Then, a little later another car stopped and the passengers got out and helped. One of the passengers had a cellphone (rare in 1994) and called the ambulance while another, Tiaan, a then veterinari­an student, spoke to her during the two-hour wait, telling her everything would be okay.

“I was able to answer yes and no questions by squeezing his hand.” Tiaan was later to change his course of study and became a doctor.

“During the ordeal he called me Carol and I asked him later why. He said it was because it was the only English name he could think of at the time,” Botha said.

“But it was my choice, it always is. I could not stop what happened to me, but I had a choice as to how I reacted to it. I was in a deep depression for about four months after the incident, until I realised that I had spent a lot of energy trying to stay alive. Why do that if I ended living in a depression?

Alison rounded off her well-delivered and received talk with the message; “Don’t carry all the stones of regret and anger and revenge in your rucksack. It serves no purpose other than making you a victim.”

 ?? Picture: ROB KNOWLES ?? I WILL SURVIVE: Alison Botha, right, who survived a terrible rape ordeal in 1994 in Port Elizabeth and became a motivation­al speaker, was the guest speaker at the Sunshine Coast Hospice breast cancer awareness dinner, held at the Royal Port Alfred Golf...
Picture: ROB KNOWLES I WILL SURVIVE: Alison Botha, right, who survived a terrible rape ordeal in 1994 in Port Elizabeth and became a motivation­al speaker, was the guest speaker at the Sunshine Coast Hospice breast cancer awareness dinner, held at the Royal Port Alfred Golf...

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