Alison Botha was just 27 when she survived one of the most brutal attacks imaginable in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. What followed was not only a fight for survival but a story of her extraordinary resilience. On December 18, 1994, Alison had been out with friends and returned home late. As she reached across her car to grab her belongings, a man suddenly forced his way inside. He threatened her life but claimed he only wanted to borrow the car. She proposed that he just take the car, but he allegedly said that he “wanted company”.

The attacker, Frans du Toit, drove her away and picked up an accomplice, Theuns Kruger. Du Toit, who had introduced himself under the false name “Clinton”, slid the driver’s seat forward, and as Krugeras got in, he said, “Meet my friend Susan”, referring to Alison, who had also used a pseudonym. Du Toit slowed down near a wooded area and pulled up onto the sand. Krugeras exited the car, and then Clinton raped Alison. Krugeras began to assault her as well, but then said, “No, I can’t do this” and stopped, accidentally shouting “Frans” at his friend. Alison remembered this name.

Frans then told Alison: “If we take you into town now, you’ll go to the police”. Du Toit followed with: “What do you think Oom Nick would want us to do with her?” Oom Nick is an Afrikaans reference to Satan. Krugeras responded: “I think he wants us to kill her.”

They strangled her until she lost consciousness, all while apologising. When she regained consciousness, she saw a man’s arm slashing in front of her face and realised her throat was being cut. “I could hear the flesh slit,” she later said. Her attackers slashed her throat multiple times and stabbed her more than 50 times, leaving her disembowelled.

When the assault ceased, Alison managed to roll onto her stomach and pretended to be dead. She remembered: “I tried to hold my breath, but I realised I had no control over my breathing – I moved my hand up to cover my neck – my whole hand disappeared into it, but it seemed to have worked – the sound was silenced.”

She listened as one attacker said, “no one can survive that”.

In the midst of the ordeal, as reported by the Daily Mirror, Alison described the horrifying moment she realised the extent of her injuries: “It was horrifying, there was just so much of me on the outside. I tried to scoop it all up with my hands, but everything just slithered away again.”

Using a piece of clothing, she attempted to keep her organs contained while shards of glass and rubble sliced her palms and knees. Half her thyroid gland was jutting from her throat.

Despite her wounds, she managed to stand and move towards the road. Holding her head upright with one hand and her exposed organs with the other, she attempted to stop passing cars. She later said: “My head had flopped backwards and almost rested between my shoulder blades.

“I expected to feel something, but was completely taken aback when my hand disappeared inside me, almost like I had swallowed myself.”

Eventually, a passing motorist stopped. A local veterinarian, Tiaan Eilerd, found her, checked her vital signs and carefully repositioned her thyroid gland back into her throat. Alison would later call him her “lifeline”.

The vet was surprised that she had made it through alive. He described her condition as looking like a “creature straight out of a Dickens novel” with her neck gashed open “almost ear to ear.” Had Tiaan not stepped in to relocate her thyroid gland, she would have died.

She was rushed to hospital, where she underwent extensive surgery and intensive care.

Remarkably, she survived. Her attackers were later arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment in 1995. When news of her attack became public, authorities learned the pair were free on bail, facing rape accusations.

The two attackers identified themselves as devil worshippers and pleaded guilty to abduction, sexual assault, and attempted homicide. Du Toit had sexually violated another victim, but the “desire to kill her had subsided” following the rape.

Rather than being defined by the attack, Alison chose to rebuild her life. She went on to have two children, despite the attackers deliberately trying to damage her reproductive system, and became a motivational speaker, sharing her story to inspire others. Through her book I Have Life and the film Alison, she has shown the power of resilience.

Reflecting on her journey, she said she hopes her story helps others find strength and believes in “the power of choice that we each have.”

Alison played a key role in ensuring they remained behind bars for many years. In 2023, both men were released on parole after serving 28 years – a decision Alison said she had always feared.

However, after immense public outcry in South Africa, this parole decision was reviewed. As of February 4, 2025, the Minister of Correctional Services revoked their parole, and both men were sent back to prison.