“I am not choosing sides, I am in the middle.”
So says the grandmother of the three children who were allegedly molested by her husband and has come forward to tell her side of the story, after her children accused her of siding with the 53-year-old toppie.
The Daily Voice reported on the case of the accused last month when bail was denied at the Mitchells Plain Magistrate’s Court.
After court proceedings, the aunty and mother of the victims, aged nine, 12 and 16, expressed their disappointment in their mother for not believing her grandchildren.
However the ouma, 53, says her hubby of three years is not a monster.
She says: “He is a very jolly person, he loves children a lot, there’s young girls who he used to help, who themselves said nothing happened. He never even flirted with them.”
The ouma also questions the validity of the accusations.
She says: “The one of 16 says he used to touch her in her sleep in the house, but she always went with him when he went to see a client, then she would also ask if she could go with.
“Why didn’t he do it to her when he was alone, why when I’m in the house? There’s stuff that is not adding up.
“Children also make up stories.”
The ouma says she believes she would have picked up something.
She says: “It’s not that I don’t believe them, I just want the truth to come out.
“I am in the middle of this. If he didn’t do it, why must he go sit for something he didn’t do? I know he loves my grandchildren a lot.
“Stuff like this happens when you have an abusive childhood, and he wasn’t abused because I was there, we grew up together.
“I just have this gut feeling that he didn’t do it. If there’s proof he did it then fine he did it, but where’s the proof?”
The case will be heard on Wednesday again.
tracy-lynn.ruiters@inl.co.za