Amanzimtoti has been rocked by the killing of a grandmother while her handicapped husband tried to call for help.
|||Amanzimtoti, KZN - Amanzimtoti has been rocked by the killing of a grandmother while her handicapped husband tried to call for help.
Although neighbours responded quickly, a call to the police hotline on 10111 was never radioed to police patrols.
Members of the Community Crime Prevention Organisation (CCPO) intend to lodge a complaint with the SAPS to make sure this never happens again.
Police believe Edda Jumaima Botha, 75, was bludgeoned to death with a pickaxe when she confronted housebreakers at her Athlone Park home on Saturday morning.
Four men allegedly targeted the Bothas’ Ilanda Road home after their attempt to gain entry to a neighbouring home had been foiled.
The bloodied axe was found in the garden by police after the assailants fled.
Botha, who trained German Shepherd dogs for shows for years, was well known in dog training circles.
She cared for her frail husband, former Daily News printing technician Braam Botha, who is partly blind and crippled.
The couple’s next door neighbour, Murray McGoldrick, raised the alarm at about 2am.
He told the Sunday Tribune crime levels in the quiet cul-de-sac had soared in recent months, blaming a nearby squatter camp and an area of dense bush.
McGoldrick said that one of the homes in the street had been burgled 12 times in less than two months
.
“I was woken at 1.40am by my boerbull, who was barking frenziedly and throwing himself at the fence dividing our property from the Bothas,” he said.
“I shone my torch into the shrubs, but couldn’t see anything because they are so thick. And then I heard Braam screaming: ‘Help me! Oh God, help me! My wife is bleeding to death!’”
McGoldrick said he rushed next door where he could see Botha through a gap in the living room curtains, lying on the floor.
“A security guard from Chubb arrived… and because the front door was locked we ran around the back, and entered through the open kitchen door,” he said.
“I ran down the passage and could see Edda’s legs protruding through the bedroom doorway. It was the most terrible sight. I have never seen so much blood. Her head had been hacked open. She did not live long.
“The old man (Botha) was hysterical. Then the members of the CCPO arrived and took over. This is going to haunt us all. Edda was a gentle, gracious lady. No one deserves to die like this.”
The CCPO members who arrived at the scene pursued two men in dark-coloured rain jackets.
“They ran down Kynock Road towards Old Main Road, but then they gave us the slip and we had to abandon the search,” said a CCPO member who asked for name protection.
Richard Allkins, chairman of the Amanzimtoti CCPO, said the organisation was appalled at the lack of response by the emergency services operator.
“I must stress that we have an excellent working relationship with the SAPS and security firms in Amanzimtoti, but I am at a loss to explain this breach,” he said.
“When we called 10111 there was an argument because the call operator wasn’t prepared to send anyone out without the exact details of the victim and her injuries, which we didn’t have at that moment. Our priority was getting help for the Bothas.
“We finally flagged down a police van with members on a routine patrol. They couldn’t believe that they hadn’t been radioed immediately to come to the scene.”
By the time help arrived, more than 40 minutes had elapsed since Edda was found by her neighbour. She was certified dead at the scene.
Yesterday SAPS spokesman Colonel Jay Naicker confirmed that a case of murder had been opened at the Amanzimtoti police station.
“It is alleged that in the early hours of Saturday the couple was sleeping in their house when four unknown men entered and demanded money and the keys to their car,” he said.
“Edda Jumaima Botha was hit with a sharp object on the head and died at the scene. Two cellphones and a cordless phone were taken. Investigations are continuing and no arrests have been made.”
Naicker said that the police were unaware of the allegations that the call centre did not dispatch anyone to the scene.
“We would request that those who made the allegations come forward so that they can be investigated,” he said.
Botha leaves her daughters, Daleen and Sonia, and grandchildren Caitlyn, Sienna, Daniel, Natasha and Roxanne
.
“We are totally numb,” said Sonia. “None of us are coping. It’s just such a terrible shock. We keep asking ‘why’?”
- Sunday Tribune