In one of the most ridiculous analogies yet, Johan Lemmer, stepfather of convicted child molester Cezanne Visser who is also known as “Advocate Barbie”, has likened her plight in being forced to serve her sentence to that of anti-apartheid icon and former president Nelson Mandela.
Lemmer told Beeld newspaper that “just like Mr Mandela, Cezanne now has to go to jail because the system let her down”. That she should consider herself to be “a Nelson Mandela”.
This assumedly flows from the fact that leave to appeal has been denied to Visser, by the Supreme Court of Appeals which means that her legal team will now be required to petition a higher court for permission to continue processing it. Her bail, however, which was granted pending the outcome of her application to the SCA, will now fall away.
Visser was sentenced to seven years in prison by the high court in Pretoria having been found guilty of 11 sex-related charges, including indecently assaulting two teenage girls and soliciting a teenager to commit indecent acts; indecently assaulting two women and benefiting from the indecent assault of a third; defrauding a children’s home and possession and manufacturing of child pornography.
She was refused leave to appeal in the original court by Acting Judge Chris Eksteen, which occasioned the application to the SCA in March for leave to appeal against her conviction.
On Wednesday, it was refused by Appeal Court Judges Mohamed Navsa and Belinda van Heerden, which means Visser has to report for jail on Monday for a seven-year term.
Visser’s crimes were particularly abhorrent involving illegal sexual acts with minors which she had recruited while — she claims — she was under the spell of Dirk Prinsloo.
The fact that she was convicted after all the evidence against her was presented in court and that she had the services of a competent legal team appears to have eluded her stepfather. So too the fact that the sentence, considering the convictions, is extremely lenient to say the least.
Where did the system fail her?
Is Lemmer suggesting that Visser’s defence of the power of Coetzee being so overwhelming as to exclude intention and unlawfulness for these crimes is some kind of rallying call for abused women the world over?
Spare us.
The object of their comparison, former president Nelson Mandela, was sentenced to life imprisonment because he refused to accept that black South Africans were not equal and entitled to the very rights that Visser takes for granted. His crime was in standing up for equality at the risk of his life. As a result a movement, then the majority of a nation and finally the planet, rallied behind him.
Accordingly, comparing the plight of Advocate Barbie to the one that faced Madiba is like saying that Fritzl is like a modern-day JFK because they both have large families.
Ridiculous.
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