Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Garden Route’s paedophile scourge
A string of convictions reveals dark underbelly of picturesque towns
BENEATH the picturesque facade of the Garden Route, a sinister trend is playing out; the region has over the past decade become something of a haven for paedophiles.
In the latest incident, a 37- year- old Plettenberg Bay computer engineer was arrested last week in a sting operation by South African and Belgian police for links to an international pornography ring distributing images and videos involving the brutal sexual assault of infants – some only a few days old.
There has been a massive public outcry locally, including a proposed march against bail for alleged paedophiles and a petition to review the law in this regard. The accused has been released on bail of R10 000, and will appear again in the local magistrate’s court on April 22.
This incident, which made national headlines, came only a month after a George father was arrested for drugging his 12-year-old daughter and six of her friends during sleepovers, raping them, then taking naked pictures of them.
The 40-year-old man, who cannot be named until he has pleaded, appeared briefly in the George Magistrate’s Court on Monday. The case was postponed to March 25.
Two weeks before that arrest, prominent George dentist Ian Venter was convicted of and sentenced for performing sexual acts on a friend’s 15year-old son during a holiday sleepover at his luxury Victoria Bay home.
Several authority figures, including teachers, were also arrested in the region in recent months for sex crimes against children.
On April 16, a 64-year-old former Wittedrift High School teacher will be back in the dock at the Knysna Magistrate’s Court, facing charges related to the sexual assault of his 6-yearold granddaughter.
He was arrested on December 15, 2013, after allegedly showing the little girl pornographic material in August 2012, then instructing her to touch his private parts.
Another Garden Route teacher also appeared in court on Monday after the sexual assault of a 12-year-old pupil at the Fraaisig Primary School in 2013.
The 52- year- old former teacher was arrested after a pupil was pinned against a wall in the school’s photocopying room after helping a teacher hand out documents. Her pants were pulled down and whe was sexually assaulted. The teacher denies the charges.
The case was postponed to April 15 for trial.
Several paedophiles were also brought to book in 2012, including a Sedgefield father who was sentenced to life imprisonment for raping his daughter.
The man, who was 36 at the time, entered his then 14-year-old daughter’s bedroom during the early hours of July 29, 2010. He told her to remove her clothes, then raped her.
The girl’s mother caught him in the act.
In Mossel Bay the same year, Samuel Ndzongwana was sentenced to 15 years in jail for repeatedly raping his 13-yearold stepdaughter.
In 2011, Knysna paedophile Rory McKenna was sentenced to two years’ correctional supervision for the statutory rape of a 15-year-old girl.
The same year, Plettenberg Bay resident Stephen Wooding was sentenced in the Chelmsford Crown Court in England to six years behind bars after admitting to more than 30 sexual offences against children.
Wooding was extradited in 2009 after committing the sex crimes against young children while living in England for six years, before returning home in 2008.
He started a relationship with a woman with dual British/South African citizenship in 2006, but then molested her 10-year-old son and 8-yearold daughter at their home in Stansted, Essex, north of London.
In 2009 Geoffrey Wolhuter, a Plettenberg Bay supermarket manager, made headlines when he was convicted for indecently assaulting homeless street children in exchange for food and gifts.
He was sentenced to six years’ imprisonment, four of which were suspended for five years. He was paroled after just 13 months. Wolhuter was stabbed to death in his home in May 2011.
Although almost a decade has passed, the Plettenberg Bay community is still haunted by the molestation and murder of 6-year-old Steven Siebert over Christmas in 2005.
Theunis Olivier was convicted of the murder, kidnapping and sexual assault of the boy, who was on holiday with his parents from Randburg.
Steven was playing outside two days before Christmas when Olivier approached him, lured him to his home, and sodomised him. Olivier later strangled him with a telephone cord and hid the little boy’s body in a cupboard, before dumping it in a bushy area near his home.
Olivier was arrested after initially assisting in the search for the boy. He was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in August 2007.
Women’s and children’s rights activist Lesley Ann Foster said although she had noticed the prevalence of sex crimes against children along the Garden Route, it was very difficult to establish the reason why there were more cases in some areas than in others.
“In my experience, sexual crimes against children are not a Garden Route problem, or even a South African problem. It is a global issue, and experts are still trying to figure out why people do this.”
Foster said power and control were among the biggest contributors to sex crimes.
“It is not about sex, it is about power and control over someone.
“You will also find that in many cases it is professionals like doctors and teachers who are the perpetrators.”
Southern Cape police spokesman Captain Malcolm Pojie said while sex crimes against children were a national problem, he confirmed that there had been many high-profile cases along the Garden Route in the past decade.
“It is very difficult to establish the reason,” Pojie said. – Garden Route Media