Cape Town – Avril Andrews has waited more than four years for justice to be served after her 27-year-old son Alcardo was allegedly gunned down by Faseegh Esau and Paul Fray on October 28, 2015 in Hanover Park.
Her message, of which she is a living example, to women and families during the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-based Violence is to never give up seeking justice, regardless of the endless amount of obstacles you have to face.
“It seems like a hopeless situation, but we can’t lose hope because if we do, what about our children and our grandchildren. So I am just so grateful to God for the strength and the guidance he is giving me to persevere,” Andrews, who founded The Alcardo Andrews Foundation: Moms Move for Justice, a non-profit organisation that supports mothers, told the Cape Times on Tuesday.
“My son’s case has been going on for over four years, but now the defence attorney, with the judge about to make his ruling, gets sick and finds ways to delay the process. That’s the type of turmoil families must go through.
“The last court date on November 13 was on the 60th birthday of my husband and also my late son’s wife’s birthday. We were so looking forward to that date because we really felt we were going to get a final date.
“I could see the frustration the prosecutor had to endure, and even the magistrate was frustrated. I told the prosecutor I am going to do something about this because this can’t happen all the time.
“The prosecutor and senior prosecutor have supported the family but the defence attorney was playing with this all this time.
“But I am also grateful that I am experiencing it because I can identify with what mothers have to go through. I can tell them that they want you to give up hope, but perservere until the end. I know this attorney doesn’t know watter toe kant toe(where to turn to).
“My family’s not going to give up because we can see he is looking for a gap to get these guys out. You’ve got keep your head above water and perservere.
"We are not here forever so when we leave, we want to know that we did something about it.”
Andrews has certainly inspired her 9-year-old grandson Levi. In August, at a march of about 300 women from all over Cape Town at Parliament, to commemorate the slaying that occurs daily on the Cape Flats, Levi pleaded with gangsters to "stop killing babies and children".
Andrews poignantly said at the march that “if a mother doesn’t heal, the family doesn’t heal”.
“With my experience, I realised how important it is for mothers to heal. The family, especially the males, look up to the mother and if they see that the mom is still very angry and hurt, then they kind of take revenge,” she told 702 in an interview.
“With the 16 days of Activism, since I’ve been on this journey, I’ve felt the campaign should happen every day. For the mom on the Cape Flats, it’s a daily fight."
On her fears for what children might be exposed to on the Cape Flats over the festive season, Andrews said: “At this moment I am so concerned about our kids in December, with them being at home, because there are so many rapes and murders."
Asked whether the murder and crime rates have declined since the deployment of the army in August, Andrews said: “I think people are reporting things less. Not because of the army, but because they don’t trust their own police stations. They don’t know who to trust any more.
“The women I work with would say, 'what’s the use of reporting because nothing gets done about it'. I would always encourage them to report it, to take an officer's name down.
“Because that’s what I did with my son’s case. I was also treated very inhumanely, with a police officer saying, for example: ‘ Mevrou ek weet nie wanneer ek jou kind se body kan gaan identify nie want ek het ook ander werk om te doen(Ma’am I don’t know when I will be able to identify your son’s body because I have other work to do). That kind of attitude.
"But I kept quiet and wrote everything down and then I took it a step further. That’s the kind of support we give women. To not feel hopeless.
“So it’s a case of each one reach one. If I can’t get there, you can go and visit that mother or give court support.
“I am hoping that we are moving forward. More voices on the Cape Flats need to be heard. So many women on the Cape Flats are in mourning.
"I also grieved but I got up and I am prepared to make a difference through our organisation.”