Summary
Name:
Johannes KanaYears Active:
2013Status:
ImprisonedClass:
MurdererVictims:
1Method:
Severe sexual assault / Mutilating injuriesNationality:
South AfricaSummary: Murderer
Name:
Johannes KanaStatus:
ImprisonedVictims:
1Method:
Severe sexual assault / Mutilating injuriesNationality:
South AfricaYears Active:
2013Date Convicted:
October 29, 2013Johannes Kana was born in 1992 in South Africa. By 2013, Kana lived in or near Bredasdorp, a town in the Western Cape. He knew Anene Booysen before the attack, and both were connected to the same local area. On the night before the murder, Kana and Booysen were both at or near a pub in Bredasdorp. Witnesses later placed Kana with Booysen outside the pub in the early hours of February 2, 2013. Kana later admitted that he assaulted and raped Booysen, but he denied killing her. The court rejected that denial and found him guilty of both rape and murder.
On the night of February 1, 2013, Anene Booysen spent time at a pub in Bredasdorp, Western Cape. In the early hours of February 2, she was seen with Johannes Kana outside the pub. Later that morning, a security guard found Booysen at a construction site near her home. She was still alive but had suffered extreme injuries. She was taken for medical treatment and later transferred to Tygerberg Hospital in Cape Town, where she died later that day.
The attack caused national outrage in South Africa. President Jacob Zuma condemned the crime, and women’s rights groups, unions, and public figures called for stronger action against rape and gender-based violence. The case became one of South Africa’s most widely discussed gender-violence cases of 2013.
Before she died, Booysen reportedly said that more than one man had been involved. Police initially arrested Kana, Jonathan Davids, and another man. Charges against Davids and the other suspect were later withdrawn because prosecutors said there was not enough evidence linking them to the rape and murder.
Kana was formally charged with rape and murder. He admitted assaulting and raping Booysen but denied causing her death. Prosecutors rejected a limited guilty plea because they believed the evidence supported life sentences for both rape and murder.
On October 29, 2013, Judge Patricia Goliath found Kana guilty of raping and murdering Anene Booysen. On November 1, 2013, he was sentenced to two life sentences.
