The family of convicted child rapist and
killer Christopher Brown - whose home was
petrol-bombed when the body of Stacey Adams was found - have been sleeping in a container for nearly two years.
Brown’s aunt, Margaret Bruiners, 57, and her nine family members, including five children, have been homeless since the maisonette in De Larey Crescent, Eastridge, Mitchells Plain, was gutted by the angry community in June 2018.
The family says residents bayed for their blood, believing they were protecting Brown, which they say was not the case and that they were desperate to get out of the house.
CASE: Margaret Bruiners, 57
After the ordeal, the family was placed in a safe house outside of Cape Town.
Five other relatives are still residing outside the city.
Brown had been dating Stacey’s mother, Sasha-Lee Adams, and was a tenant on his aunt’s premises.
He admitted that he raped and strangled the six-year-old inside his wendy house, and hacked her with a frying pan before
burying the body next to his house.
Brown said he had been angry at Sasha-Lee, who had left him the previous night to go to a party in Delft.
The child had lived with her ouma across the road and came to look for her mom the next day when Brown attacked her.
Brown entered into a plea and sentencing agreement at the Western Cape High Court, where he also admitted that he assaulted and strangled 19-year-old Thulisa Lavisa at their Khayelitsha home in 2015.
He was sentenced to four life terms behind bars for his crimes.
KILLER: Christopher Brown
Meanwhile, Margaret tells the Daily Voice that the living conditions are bad for her family. “During winter it is cold inside the container and in summer it is very hot.”
Margaret’s son Gerrit says he has approached the ward councillor, Solomon
Philander.
“When I spoke to the ward councillor, Solomon Philander, and the local housing office via the City, they had the house assessed and it was said that contractors would come and demolish the top,” he says.
“But this never happened and they never secured the house, and now I am sleeping in the bottom section.”
ATTACK: The house was gutted by the angry community in 2018.
Philander responds: “Engineers and the structural damage was assessed and the quote came to be more than the amount budgeted to fix it.
"We did provide the family with a temporary container and we know this is not comfortable. I have shown all of these reports to Gerrit.
"We have not forgotten about them, this is a process.”
The City’s Maintenance and Upgrades Department said they are looking into the situation.