It takes a village 

My friend's mother saved her life. As a teenager she was living in a community that had been terrorised by a convicted rapist and murderer.

 

One day this serial predator, who had just been released from jail, came upon her and her mother in the street and remarked something like, ''Jou dogter het mooi groot geraak.''

 

That was all her mother needed. She set off to the rapist's house and spoke to his father, a known gangster in the community.

 

She ended up befriending the father, they exchanged records and spent long hours talking, while his wife was in the background -- probably aware of the deeper meaning behind the trade in musical tastes.

 

Once the friendship had been cemented, my friend's mother approached the father with a simple plea: Please, don't let your son harm my daughter.

 

The son, who adored his father, complied. My friend was spared but all around her girls were raped, some of them known to her.