Survivor’s Harrowing Ordeal
Alison Botha survived a brutal attack in 1994 in which she was gang raped, disembowelled, and nearly decapitated. The 27-year-old was abducted outside her Port Elizabeth home on December 18, 1994, by Frans du Toit, the son of a police officer, who climbed into her car and threatened to kill her. Du Toit then drove into town and picked up a friend, Theuns Kruger.
The pair drove to a wooded area where Du Toit raped Alison. Kruger began to attack her but stopped, saying “no I can’t do this”. After the assault, the men ordered her to remove her rings and clothing before Du Toit strangled her until she was unconscious.
Attack and Survival
When she regained consciousness, she realised her throat was being cut, later saying she could “hear the flesh slit”. Determined that her attackers would face justice, she wrote their names in the sand and added “I love mom”. She played dead, and after the attackers left, she saw lights and decided to go to the road for help. It was then that she reached down and felt something “tepid, wet and slimy”. She looked down to discover her intestines were exposed and protruding from her abdomen. She said: “It was horrifying – there was just so much of me on the outside. I tried to scoop it all up with my hands but everything just slithered away again.”
Rescue and Justice
A man named Tiann Eilerd, a trained vet, discovered her in the road and saved her before she was treated in hospital. Kruger and Du Toit pleaded guilty to kidnapping, rape, and attempted murder and were jailed for life without the possibility of parole in 1995. However, there was outrage when the pair were granted parole and released in 2023, 29 years after the attack. A campaign against the move was launched, and in 2025 both were returned to prison, with Pieter Groenewald, minister of correctional services, citing reports showing that both continued to be a risk to society.
