A FAMILY demands answers and the body of their 41-year-old family member who died in hospital.
Frans Albertus Touis (41) died in hospital on 12 June after he went to question the men responsible for assaulting his brother, Cory Cloete on Sunday. On June 11, he was found bleeding on a pavement – severely beaten and with a stab wound to the back of the head .
His sister Catherine van Randen said Frans died at the Baragwanath Hospital on Monday morning around 4am.
She found Frans on a pavement gasping for air around 8pm that Sunday. It was her other brother, Tiny Freeman, who was alerted to the assault of Frans and notified the family.
Tiny told the COURIER of the horrific night the family found Frans bleeding on a pavement near the Trojan Panel Beaters after he was beaten by five unknown men. He said his brother Cloete had left their residence in Rosettenville earlier that day to sell his cellphone. Cloete was assaulted in the area near the Trojan Panel Beaters building, by men who wanted his phone. Apparently, Cloete went home after the assault and told his family about his ordeal. Upon hearing his story his two brothers, Frans and Tiny, left the house around 4pm to look for the culprits but returned home with no answers.
Frans left again on his own around 6pm and was found covered in blood and on the pavement around 8pm.
His sister Van Randen and the family were notified of the assault by neighbors.
She said there had been an altercation caught on CCTV camera showing the brutal assault of her brother.
“My brother was taken into the building and brutally beaten,” she stated.
She claimed police were in possession of both the footage and weapons used in her brother’s ‘brutal’ attack.
“No statements were taken by police on the night. Police just stood there while I was being verbally abused by the men who were linked to the assault. Tiny and I had to go to the Moffat View police station to open a docket the next day,” she added.
According to Van Randen, her brother lay gasping for air while medics told her what to do. She panicked trying to save his life. Van Randen said medics could have done more in attempting to save her brother’s life.
She said the family faced obstacle after obstacle in the attempt to retrieve Frans’s body from the state morgue near Baragwanath Hospital. A week later and still no body.
“We have been calling countless times attempting to get Frans’s body for burial, and were told an autopsy still needed to be done” said Van Randen.”
Because the family was not in a great financial position, Van Randen said they would also need financial assistance for their brother’s burial as soon as they were allowed to identify and have his body.
“It’s a week and we haven’t seen him since he was bleeding on Sunday night,” she said.
The Moffat View area CPF sector 1 said they had been patrolling the area around the family’s residence since the attack. The CPF members who asked not to be named, said they suspected it was a gang who assaulted Frans and believed the gang was well connected.
CPF, Van Randen and Tiny claim the weapons used to assault Frans, as well as the video, were missing.
Moffat View SAPS have received an enquiry regarding the attack. They have a case number and spokesperson Constable Mikateko Bila said feedback will be given as soon as possible.
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