Rape survivor Alison Botha has handed a petition containing 11,000 signatures to the parole board, objecting to the possible release on parole of her assailants

The two men raped her and left her for dead with slit throat and 36 knife wounds in Port Elizabeth 18 years ago, and are among 5,000 prisoners who could benefit from new legislation.

The Independent Online reported in January that the legislation, which came into effect last year, enabled any prisoner sentenced to a life term before 2004 to apply for parole after serving at least 13 years and four months.

This meant that Botha’s attackers Frans du Toit and Theuns Kruger could be back on the streets 17 years into their life sentences for her rape and attempted murder.  

Beeld and Volksblad reported that Botha, 45, told a Women’s Day function in Bloemfontein at the weekend that she had delivered the petition to the parole board and was waiting to hear what would happen to Du Toit, who is being held in the Grootvlei prison in Bloemfontein, and Kruger, who is in C-Max prison in Pretoria.

Alison Botha’s life story has been told in a book “I Have Life” of which 80,000 copies have been sold.