Wife-beater Bizos belongs behind bars

A prison sentence is the only appropriate punishment for a remorseless wife-beater who taunted his victim and then tried to convince the court that he was in fact the victim. That’s the argument Advocate Gerrie Nel, Head of AfriForum’s Private Prosecutions Unit, presented today in the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court in the case against Alexis Bizos, son of the late struggle stalwart George Bizos. In July last year, the court convicted Bizos junior of assault with the intent to cause grievous bodily harm for the 2015 attack that left his then wife, Monique van Oosterhout, with six broken ribs.

In 2018, Nel announced that the unit would privately prosecute the case after the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) declined to prosecute Bizos. The trial eventually started in January 2020. The conviction was a significant victory in the fight against gender-based violence (GBV) and selective prosecution.

Today, Nel described Bizos as a “bully with money” and a “wife-beater” who violated the sanctity of the home, which, like most cases of GBV, became a crime scene. The court previously found that Bizos was an evasive witness who tailored his evidence.

Nel argued that the justice system failed Van Oosterhout. “Despite the lip service paid to the fight against gender-based violence and strengthened legislation to deal with this societal scourge, and even a yearly period of action and reflection on gender-based violence, the criminal justice system has failed victims in general and this victim in particular. She had to resort to private prosecution to get justice.”

Nel stressed that the sentence should restore public trust in the justice system. “Violence perpetrated against the most vulnerable in society persists unabated, either because the accused have become accustomed to law enforcement and the NPA’s reluctance and failure to deal with these matters, and/or the inappropriate sentences imposed on the men convicted of these egregious crimes.”

Nel told the court that Bizos’ lack of remorse calls for severe punishment. “A fine would create a lottery for assault. How many ribs for a R10 000 fine? How much will it cost me to silence my wife that is wasting my time? A suspended sentence in this instance would be shockingly inappropriate and will elevate the interests of the accused above that of the victim and society.”

“We argue direct imprisonment as the only proper sentence to reflect the court’s abhorrence of a man who assaults his vulnerable wife in the privacy of her home and shows no contrition whatsoever,” concluded Nel.

The matter was postponed to 14 February for the sentence to be handed down.

Cover image: Advocates Gerrie Nel and Phyllis Vorster (right), from AfriForum’s Private Prosecution Unit, with Monique van Oosterhout.