A 48-year-old woman from Bloemhof, North West, has been disfigured and traumatised after being mauled by her employer’s three Pitbulls for a third time a year ago.
Dipuo Kokolosi said when she got employment as a domestic worker in Potchefstroom three years ago, she believed her prayers had been answered because as a single mother who had to care for her daughter and her two grandchildren, the chance to earn money would improve her life.
Her dreams were shattered when three Pitbulls attacked her inside her employer’s house and began feeding on her flesh.
“I believed that was the end of me,” she said. There were three, and I had no idea how I was going to survive; it is only by God’s mercy that I am still here”.
Kokolosi said she will always be grateful to a neighbour who rushed to her aid when she screamed for help. “A man came and found me struggling with these dogs, and he got his gun and shot them dead,” she explained.
That is when Kokolosi escaped death. But after the incident, she had no recollection of how she got to the hospital.
“When I opened my eyes, I noticed doctors around me and they informed me that I was in a hospital and since that time, my life has never been better. They’ve destroyed my life,” she said about the dogs.
Ironically, it was not the first time the dogs had attacked her, she said. “It was the third time, they wounded my shoulder, and the second time, they bit my breast,” she recalled.
She said that she did not notify the police about the first two incidents because her employer assured her that she would heal and he would make sure she received medication and health care.
“When you have children, it is better to work than to be unemployed; I needed a job at that time,” she said.
Kokolosi will be admitted at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital on Tuesday, where she will undergo her second operation to reconstruct her nose.
Doctors told her that she might obtain an ear, but that it would be a costly procedure, she said.
Kokolosi’s employer, who only referred to himself as Herman, referred all inquiries to his lawyer.
North West police spokesperson Colonel Adele Myburgh, said Kokolosi’s case had been sent to the National Prosecuting Authority for a decision.
