“If the police had done their work, my child’s murderer would never have been released,” according to the father of the 11-year-old Marike Jansen who was brutally raped and murdered in September 2005 in Riversdal. Jakobus September, also known as Pepe, was arrested for the rape and murder of Marike in 2005, but was released because of a lack of evidence. Pepe faces another rape charge as well as a charge of attempted murder and robbery. He and his 17-year-old co-accused appeared in the Riversdal Magistrate’s Court on 28 June 2010.
Hundreds of angry residents protested outside the court during his court appearance.
Solidarity Helping Hand launched a campaign recently with the aim of mobilising South Africans to prevent this alleged serial rapist and murderer from being released on bail again. A total of 5 447 South Africans have protested against the possibility that Pepe will receive bail on 21 July on the website www.stoppepe.co.za, by sending an SMS or by signing a petition. Members of the public can SMS the word “Pepe” to 34388. (An SMS is charged at R2.)
“Over the past few months, Helping Hand has been inundated with similar complaints about alleged rapists who virtually got off scot free from their crimes because of the incompetence of investigating officers,” Dr Danie Langner, executive director of Helping Hand, said.
According to Marike’s father, Piet Jansen, the police’s poor investigation in the case led to Pepe’s release as a result of a lack of evidence. “The police did not even come when I phoned them the day my daughter went missing. She disappeared the Saturday afternoon and they only started searching the farm on Monday,” he said. Marike’s body was discovered almost a week later in a ravine three kilometres from the farm where her father works. As her body had been exposed to the elements, including rain, it had started to decompose. Crucial forensic evidence had been destroyed.
According to Jansen, Pepe had bothered his daughter the morning before her disappearance. “I told him to leave my daughter alone, because I didn’t like the way he looked at her. He said in front of two witnesses that he would see her again. He was also seen close to the scene on the afternoon of her disappearance. “If Pepe had been behind bars, then two other girls would not have been raped and almost murdered,” Jansen said.
Pepe and his co-accused are charged with raping an 18-year-old girl four times, bashing her head with a 50 kg stone and leaving her for dead on 29 May this year.
In 2007, Pepe was found guilty of assaulting a girl (18) from Stilbaai, but he was not charged with rape owing to a lack of evidence. The girl was strangled like Marike, but survived the incident.
According to Sylvia Horn, principal of the farm school where Marike attended school for six years, the case was not investigated thoroughly. “Marike’s father is a farm worker. I cannot help but wonder whether the case would have been investigated right away if her father had been a wealthy, influential man who could afford private help.”
Langner said that all rape cases should be given the same priority, regardless of who the victim is.
He further said that public opinion is taken into account when it comes to releasing an accused person on bail.
Helping Hand has addressed a grievance letter to public prosecutor Jerome Josephs, opposing a possible bail application.
“Enough is enough. Pepe’s next victim could, like Marike, also be killed,” he said.
Pepe will appear in the Swellendam Regional Court where he has been released on bail previously occasions on 21 July.
Statistics on rape:
- According to a report released by the American research company Gallup and the international intelligence agency Interpol, one out of every two women in South Africa is raped.
- Every 17 seconds a woman is raped in South Africa.
- South Africa has the highest rate of reported rapes in the world.
- Approximately half of these rapes are child rapes.
- One out of every four South Africans feels that rapists deserve the death penalty and 97% of South Africans regard rape as a big problem.
- The report further states that 81% of South Africans, including 84% of men and 79% of women, feel that life cannot be the same after rape.
- Approximately 88% of rapes are not reported.
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