Desiree Verwey tells OFM News she hoped the Bloemfontein Magistrate’s Court would have sentenced Waheed Franks to a longer time in prison for that assault. 

She asks how five years can be justice for what happened to her then 11-year-old granddaughter. 

“He almost killed her,” she says. Franks made news headlines in late 2019 after gruesome pictures of his daughter with bloodied ears and swollen eyes, surfaced on social media. Spokesperson for the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) in the Free State, Phaladi Shuping, tells OFM News Franks was found guilty of attempted murder in 2020 and sentenced to five years in jail on Friday 28 May.  

Following the assault, the 39-year-old father attempted suicide and was admitted to a local hospital. Police spokesperson, Thabo Covane, told OFM News back then, that Franks underwent a psychological evaluation and was revealed to not be suffering from any mental illnesses. 

Recently Free State law enforcement agencies conceded that they have failed in competently handling the scourge of gender-based violence (GBV) in the province. The Acting Free State Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Navilla Somaru, and Provincial Police Commissioner, Baile Motswenyane, admitted during day one of the first GBV and Femicide indaba held at Bobbiespark in Bloemfontein on Tuesday (12 May), that the situation in the province with regards to the issue is quite dire at this stage.

Somaru cautions that many Free State towns and cities are ranked amongst the places with the highest sexually-based offences and gender-based violence statistics/case numbers in the country, making specific mention of Botshabelo, Bronville in Welkom and Phuthaditjhaba. Motswenyane echoes Navilla’s sentiments and explains why the two law enforcement agencies have convened to chart a way forward. The Provincial Police Commissioner says if the systems put in place by law enforcement agencies were indeed effective, gender-based violence numbers would be lower.

OFM News