A trust account to help pay medical bills for a 23-year-old woman who had acid thrown in her face last week, has been set up by her employer, a Cape Town doctor.
The woman, who does not want her name made public at this stage, was travelling in a taxi to work her evening shift on Tuesday last week when two men, unknown to the victim, threw acid in her face as they got out the vehicle. They then fled on foot into the Bo-Kaap.
The woman is from Zimbabwe but there were no xenophobic threats or references to her nationality made by her attackers. Provincial police spokesperson Andre Traut said they had no idea what the motive for the attack may have been.
Yesterday Traut said no arrests had been made as yet and there were “no new developments”.
The woman was rushed to the Christiaan Barnard Memorial Hospital, just blocks away from the taxi stop, where the incident occurred.
A man who was sitting next to her was also treated for burns on his leg as some of the acid thrown at the woman splashed onto him.
Her employer, Dr Elizabeth Parker, said Cape Town plastic surgeon Mark van der Velde had offered his services pro bono and would conduct the first operation today. However, hospitalisation and other related costs would be incurred and Parker said an account had been opened for people willing to make donations.
Director of the Passop refugee rights organisation, Braam Hanekom, said the organisation was attempting to raise money to assist her.
Hanekom said Passop was planning on contacting her later during the week to determine how best they could help.
“We are worried that as a Zimbabwean immigrant, she lacks family structure and support,” said Hanekom.
Acid attacks in South Africa are a rarity but are common, especially against women, in the Asian sub-continent. In 2009, the Acid Survivors Foundation of Bangladesh reported 2313 cases of acid attacks on women and girls over a 10-year period, reports Gender Links, an NGO supporting women’s rights.
The trust fund details are: Standard Bank, Thibault Square, Branch no: 02090900, account name: Acid Attack Expense Account, account no: 074421395. – West Cape News