An 83-year-old woman is afraid of staying in her own home after surviving a brutal attack by two men who forced their way in and assaulted her.
An 83-year-old woman is afraid of staying in her own home after surviving a brutal attack by two men who forced their way in and assaulted her.
Still in pain where she was beaten, the Ethembeni informal settlement resident's young granddaughter has moved in with her since the attack last weekend. The 8-year-old will stay with her grandmother until she's fully recovered.
Matilda Buyani* was fast asleep on the night of Sunday 17 November when men pretending to be police officers banged on her door. "They yelled 'police open up! We are the police!' and when I woke up to check at the window they broke it with a flash light," Buyani said.
The men then temporarily blinded her by flashing the light in her eyes. When she opened her door the men charged in. One then ordered her to lie down. "I asked him 'why do I have to lie down?' but he kept insisting I lie down. He hit me on the side of the head twice and then I fell down and then he pressed my neck onto the floor."
The elderly woman said when she screamed hysterically and called to God to intervene her attackers stopped what they were doing and took off.
As quickly as she could she went to the nearest house screaming for help. Her neighbours, a married couple, said they heard Buyani's cries and the terrified woman rattling at their gate. "We immediately woke up and we also woke our children," they said.
The family decided that the husband should sleep at Buyani's house that night in case the attackers returned. The wife says the area behind Benjamin Mahlasela Secondary School is crime infested and it's not safe for the old woman to stay there alone.
Buyani has been living alone for two years since her children all left the house to live with their spouses in other areas. Buyani's grandson is worried about his grandmother's safety.
"My sisters and I moved out to find our own places and the last of them vacated the house two years ago and now my grandmother is a target for tsotsis," he said. Police spokesperson Captain Mali Govender could not be reached at the time of going to print.
*Name changed to protect the victim's identity
