A SINGLE mother who was viciously attacked by an axe-wielding man says she is on the road to recovery.
The 45-year-old victim from Mamre, just outside Cape Town, who did not want to be named, says she fought for her life on August 25 at about 10pm.
Speaking to IOL, the woman said she heard glass breaking and thought it was a similar incident where her windows were broken the previous month.
“I tried to hide for some sort of cover. Just as I was headed towards my bedroom door, there he was. Standing with an axe in his hand and a bewildered look. I could see my death,” she said.
The man she speaks about is 25-year-old Frank Sans-Souci.
“All he said to me was that I was ruining his life. Everything happened so fast. I didn’t know what he was talking about. I didn’t answer him. I was too focused on the axe in his hand and wondering which way he was going to swing it,” she explains.
The woman said Sans-Souci just started chopping at her. She tried stopping him and shielded her body with her arms.
The pair wrestled and he chopped her with the axe on her back.
“The axe pulled at my skin as it hit my back. He never said anything. He just kept chopping at me with the axe. I tried getting up, I nearly slipped. I was fighting back.
“He looked at me and he kept chopping. He was chopping me like someone chops a tree stump. My legs felt like they were caving in and that’s when he hit me on my knee. As I stumbled he went for my head,” she told IOL.
The woman said it was like he had just given up and simply walked away nonchalantly.
She leaned along the walls of her home and told herself she need to get help.
As she got to the doorway and onto the patio, she stumbled.
“I told myself you cannot give up. As I tried leaving he still threatened me and told me if I opened a case he would kill me.
“I made my way out of my yard to seek help. I managed to get further down my road to alert my family. I have a chronic illness and as soon as my relatives opened the door I said his name. In case I went into a coma so they and the police could know who did this to me,” she said.
She said she even noticed her perpetrator walking down the street as she was seeking help.
The single mother was immediately rushed to hospital and had sustained gashes all over her body. She received 28 stitches to her forehead, eyebrow, knees, back and the back of her head. Her ribs were also fractured due to the impact of the axe blows to her back.
“I don’t know why he did what he did but I can only praise God that I survived. This is my testimony. I am currently receiving counselling and it really is helping me,” she said.
Sans-souci was subsequently arrested by police.
On September 16, he was granted R3000 bail in the Atlantis Magistrate’s Court.
His bail conditions does not allow him to be within the Atlantis or Mamre areas; he thus gave the court an address in Willowmore in the Eastern Cape.
The matter has been postponed until November 12.
While the woman may be getting her life back on track at the moment, she has expressed her disappointment in the justice and policing systems.
“I am very unhappy that he was granted bail. I am also unhappy about the way my case is being handled. The detective in the matter was once at my house. I was not at home but in the hospital. I had to go to the police station to see him. He is extremely unprofessional,” she said.
She said the police officer also claimed to never had “seen her injuries” and that was his reason for not opposing bail.
“How can he see my wounds when he never came to see me. The day I went to the Atlantis police station I was on crutches, I had a cap on my head, my wounds were covered. I just want someone else to investigate my case,” she added.
She also commended the Survivors’ Haven Foundation, a non-profit company which focuses on advocating against gender-based violence, victim support and youth development.
IOL