The brutal murder of Gqeberha real estate agent Cheryl-Ann Kannemeyer at the end of 2023 rocked the metro.
The 61-year-old mother and grandmother was killed in a frenzied knife attack two days after Christmas.
Her body was found in the driver’s seat of her silver Honda Jazz in the yard of the Gelvandale home she had long shared with her husband, Colin “Junior” Kannemeyer.
The couple had recently become estranged.
Kannemeyer, 57, who was arrested the next day after being treated for injuries which police suspect were self-inflicted, abandoned his bid for bail on January 2 and is due back in court on February 20.
Officiating at Cheryl-Ann’s funeral on Friday, Family Revival Church pastor Mervyn Buezacht focused part of his message on abuse.
“We should be loving our people all day long without abusing and hurting them,” he said.
“Women are suffering, they are being beaten, raped, murdered, abused physically, emotionally and financially.
“If you find yourself in an abusive relationship, get out. Because if you do not stop, the abuse is going to stop you.”
Ironically, that is exactly what Cheryl-Ann had tried to do, according to her son, Dexter, who said his mother had left her home about two weeks before the attack, returning only that fatal day to collect the rest of her belongings.
There are so many more women across the country in similar positions.
We see it every day in posts on social media support groups for those in abusive situations — many women are ready, willing and desperate to get out, but have no resources and nowhere to go.
And so, they stay. They endure the abuse and, in some cases they die.
Society needs to recognise domestic and gender-based violence for what it is, a scourge, wiping out women.
The repercussions of such violence extend beyond individual victims and families, affecting society as a whole.
It is a crime that needs daily attention, not just for 16 days a year in December, as Buezacht said at Cheryl-Ann’s funeral.
We urgently need to step up our immediate response to women wanting to leave abusive relationships, for example by introducing 24-hour safe houses across SA that are easy to access at short notice.
But we could, and should, be doing so much more.
All spheres of society — government, business, civil society, communities and individuals — need to act together if we are to eradicate the roots of domestic violence.
HeraldLIVE
SA must rise up against abuse of women
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Image: Eugene Coetzee
The brutal murder of Gqeberha real estate agent Cheryl-Ann Kannemeyer at the end of 2023 rocked the metro.
The 61-year-old mother and grandmother was killed in a frenzied knife attack two days after Christmas.
Her body was found in the driver’s seat of her silver Honda Jazz in the yard of the Gelvandale home she had long shared with her husband, Colin “Junior” Kannemeyer.
The couple had recently become estranged.
Kannemeyer, 57, who was arrested the next day after being treated for injuries which police suspect were self-inflicted, abandoned his bid for bail on January 2 and is due back in court on February 20.
Officiating at Cheryl-Ann’s funeral on Friday, Family Revival Church pastor Mervyn Buezacht focused part of his message on abuse.
“We should be loving our people all day long without abusing and hurting them,” he said.
“Women are suffering, they are being beaten, raped, murdered, abused physically, emotionally and financially.
“If you find yourself in an abusive relationship, get out. Because if you do not stop, the abuse is going to stop you.”
Ironically, that is exactly what Cheryl-Ann had tried to do, according to her son, Dexter, who said his mother had left her home about two weeks before the attack, returning only that fatal day to collect the rest of her belongings.
There are so many more women across the country in similar positions.
We see it every day in posts on social media support groups for those in abusive situations — many women are ready, willing and desperate to get out, but have no resources and nowhere to go.
And so, they stay. They endure the abuse and, in some cases they die.
Society needs to recognise domestic and gender-based violence for what it is, a scourge, wiping out women.
The repercussions of such violence extend beyond individual victims and families, affecting society as a whole.
It is a crime that needs daily attention, not just for 16 days a year in December, as Buezacht said at Cheryl-Ann’s funeral.
We urgently need to step up our immediate response to women wanting to leave abusive relationships, for example by introducing 24-hour safe houses across SA that are easy to access at short notice.
But we could, and should, be doing so much more.
All spheres of society — government, business, civil society, communities and individuals — need to act together if we are to eradicate the roots of domestic violence.
HeraldLIVE
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