No help when they needed it most
ON NOVEMBER 10, 2013, Roeland Dean Bosman entered his motherin-law’s home carrying a full 5- litre petrol can and a box of matches.
He walked to her room, where the 74year-old was confined to her bed by severe rheumatoid arthritis. He then covered the floor, the bed and the woman in it with fuel. Her screams for help brought her daughters and grandchildren running to the room, but by the time they reached her, they could do nothing but watch helplessly as Bosman lit three matches and the room turned to flames.
Brenda Hedges succumbed to her injuries the next day. Her murder at the hands of her son-in-law marked a brutal end to years of violence and cruelty.
Bosman had been abusing his wife Cecilia, her sister Lucille, and their mother Brenda from as early as 2004.
He had threatened his family with knives and firearms; strangled, bullied and beaten them with everything from his fists to broomsticks and steel pipes. On one occasion, her sister recalls that he kicked a pregnant Cecilia in the stomach.
Brenda’s death was the culmination of countless other incidents. It was also a result of many calls for help that went largely unanswered. The case is by no means unique. Domestic violence is a serious and lifethreatening problem worldwide, not least in South Africa, which has the highest rate of domestic violence in the world according to the World Health Organisation. A 2010 UN report estimates that one woman is killed by her partner here every six hours.
South African legislation (in the form of the Domestic Violence Act) gives those who are being abused the option not only of opening a case with the police, but approaching the courts directly for a protection order, which should be accompanied by a suspended arrest warrant in case the abuser violates the order.
Even so, domestic violence is a severe problem and it’s more than likely we’re still underestimating its scale. Most people who experience domestic violence are, for various reasons, not willing to report the crime. They may be embarrassed or convinced they deserved the abuse.
They may not want their abuser to go to jail if, for example, the family depends on them for income. They may simply be afraid to approach the police. Many have lost confidence in the police force and worry they won’t be believed. They may feel intimidated by their abuser and dread that calling the police would provoke even more intense abuse in retaliation.
The act of seeking help or involving others can lead to more violent attacks. This is exactly what happened to Lucille, Cecilia and Brenda.
After Bosman had attacked her with a shovel, hit her in the face and tried to strangle her, Lucille applied for a protection order in July 2013. In her application, she notes that along with the physical abuse, Bosman had already threatened to rape her and to burn and kill her. Later Lucille also applied for a protection order on her mother’s behalf in the hope that this would force Bosman to leave their property. Even though both orders were granted, the abuse didn’t stop.
When Lucille’s interim order was served on Bosman, he tore it up in front of her and again threatened to burn the house down with everyone in it.
About a month later, on September 18, Bosman attacked Lucille with a butcher’s knife when he imagined he heard her calling the police. She was able to get away and keep her bedroom door between herself and the knife. She phoned the Sophiatown police station while he repeatedly tried to stab her through the door, missing her face and hands by inches. When the police arrived at the house, however, they would not get out of their car to investigate or take a statement.
Lucille went to the police station again and again in the days that followed to report the incident but the officers on duty would not help her. She refused to give up and, on her third or fourth attempt, they finally opened a case – not of attempted murder but a much lesser crime of malicious damage to property.
When Bosman came back to the family home, Lucille called the police again. They did not come.
When Bosman was arrested weeks later, on October 8, his time behind bars was short-lived. He was released the following day with the instruction to attend mediation after appearing in the Newlands Magistrate’s Court. This marked the second time in a month that he had been released with nothing more than a warning. He had already been arrested once before for contravening Lucille’s protection order on September 9.
In the months leading up to their mother's death, Lucille and Cecilia approached the police for help at least nine times. Despite the warning signs, no one they spoke to seemed to understand the threat Bosman posed to his own family and failed again and again to enforce their protection orders. Cecilia did try to leave Bosman. She filed for divorce on November 8, 2013 – two days before Bosman returned to the house for the last time and burnt her mother alive.
He was arrested days later and appeared in the Palm Ridge Magistrate’s Court on December 24, 2013 to face charges relating to this incident.
Cecilia and Lucille’s lawyer, advocate Cathy Welsch, was in court that day to find that an incomplete docket had been delivered to the magistrate. Prosecutors believed Bosman had been charged with arson and had no idea about the murder.
If advocate Welsch hadn’t been there to bring this to the court’s attention, it’s possible that Bosman would have been granted bail and released once again – an oversight that could have had devastating consequences for the family.
Over a year later, on February 3 this year, Bosman pleaded guilty to the charges of arson and murder.
He is currently serving a 25-year sentence, but if Lucille and Cecilia had received the support they needed, perhaps Bosman’s repeated threats to burn and kill the family would not have come true. Lee-Anne Bruce and Baone Twala are based at the Centre for Applied Legal Studies at Wits. This is the first in a series of articles on
domestic violence