Community furious about gogo’s assault, allegedly by grandson

According to the distraught pensioner, her grandson came home drunk on February 10 at around 1am.

Gogo Maria said her grandson woke her up and demanded her to give back his father’s inheritance money.

“His father died more than 10 years ago. As soon as his pension fund paid out, I gave the money to my grandson’s mother. His mother stays in Vosloorus. I told him to ask her for the money. He became angry and decided to beat me up. I never saw him so angry,” said Gogo Maria.

She said he has previously assaulted her many times.

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“But because I love him, I decided to turn a blind eye and even protect him from the angry community members who eventually became aware of my situation,” said Gogo Maria, who makes a living out of recycling.

She said she was tired of being bullied by her grandchild, who promised he’d kill her on the day of the latest incident.

“I never saw him so angry. As he was beating me, he turned my bedroom furniture upside down and on top of that he threatened to kill me and left me lying on the floor. I am sure he thought I was dead when he left,” Gogo Maria said.

She denied rape claims and explained what had happened.

“He did assault me, it is true, but it is not true that he raped me. What happened was after failing to get the inheritance money from me, he demanded I give him some of my pension money and the money I make from recycling. I told him I don’t have any money. He became angry and undressed me as he thought I was hiding some money under my clothes. At one stage, I thought he was going to rape me as he was undressing me, but he didn’t,” she explained.

Thabo Hadebe, the grandson’s cousin, said as the family, they are not happy with what happened.

“What he did to my grandmother is totally unacceptable. I would like to see him rot in jail for it. My grandmother never has money to look after herself because he takes it all and spends it on alcohol,” said Hadebe.

Joseph Mpungose, a street and a ward committee member, said the community are very angry and they want to kill the grandson.

“We feel very bad and we want social workers to come and give us a way forward as the police are dragging their feet in finding the suspect. A day after the incident took place there was a street committee meeting where the community agreed they will leave no stone unturned in finding the suspect. I advised them not to take the law into their own hands, instead, they should rather hand him to the police if they find him,” said Mpungose.

Communications officer at Katlehong Police Station Capt Mega Ndobe said a case of assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm (GBH) has been opened at the police station and that the police are still investigating as the suspect is at large.

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“We understand the anger of the community, but I would like to appeal to them not to take the law into their own hands should they find the suspect. They must let the police do their job,” advised Ndobe.

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