It has been eight months since the assault that left 19-year-old Jethro van Schalkwyk in a coma, yet his attackers remain at large.
|||Cape Town - It has been eight months since the assault that left 19-year-old Jethro van Schalkwyk in a coma, yet his attackers remain at large because of an incomplete case docket.
Last September, Van Schalkwyk was assaulted by two men outside a pub in Table View. He hit his head on the concrete and went into a coma after being punched.
In Groote Schuur Hospital, he was kept alive by life support for 10 days before his family agreed that the machines be switched off.
He died on September 18.
Since then, Brenda Prout-Jones - Van Schalkwyk's mother - has worked tirelessly to piece together the circumstances of the assault.
Prout-Jones says two suspects have been identified from CCTV footage of the fight.
Their identities have been corroborated by witnesses.
One of the alleged suspects was a on-duty bouncer, the other a former bouncer on the nightclub scene at Marine Circle in Table View.
Despite this, Prout-Jones has accused Table View police of having moved at an “unacceptably” slow pace in terms of taking statements and gathering evidence to build a case against the suspects.
“For me it has been unbelievably difficult and frustrating. I have tried to assist the police by sharing the information that my investigation has uncovered with them, in return they have not responded to my e-mails, phone calls and requests to get an update on their investigation,” she said.
“I would also like an explanation as to why it has taken so long to complete the docket.”
On Friday, Prout-Jones said the docket had been referred to the National Prosecuting Authority, but had to be redirected because a report from the forensic pathologist who established that Van Schalkwyk’s cause of death was missing.
The Cape Argus queried police about the investigation, but only received the following reply from spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Andrè Traut: “Kindly be advised that there are no new developments to report at this stage. The case is still under investigation.”
Meanwhile, local media have reported on two other major assaults to have take place at nightclubs near Marine Circle.
* Earlier this month, Travis Baard, 20, from Kenilworth was assaulted by six bouncers. The bouncers allegedly used a spade, a brick and a Taser as weapons during the brawl.
Baard is now in the process of taking legal action.
* In February, brothers Xander, 28, and Raynard Loggenberg, 19, were attacked by five men after an altercation with a bouncer.
During the assault the bouncer, the only one of the attackers who seemed to have been officially working as security, hit Xander with a baton - leaving him with a gash in his forehead that required five stitches and a gash on his scalp that required six clamps.
daneel.knoetze@inl.co.za
Cape Argus