The 80-year-old granny of Madobi, near Vuwani, who attacked a would-be rapist a month ago, was awarded the Thohoyandou Victim Empowerment’s (TVEP) Granny of the Year award.

She was honoured during a ceremony at Madobi on Monday.

Ms Tstasawane Ntseme attacked the culprit last month and grabbed and squashed his private parts until he run away and left behind his T-shirt. He initially gained entrance to her house through a broken window.

A senior legal officer of the Thohoyandou Victim Empowerment Project, Tshilidzi Masikhwa, told Mirror that, after reading the story of Granny Ntseme, they decided to honor the old lady. They also presented Granny Ntseme with groceries to the value of R500.

Ntseme said that women should learn to fight back when other people wanted to harm them. She added that she was delighted to be honoured by TVEP.

Mr Tshilidzi Masikhwa of TVEP said they are investigating why the granny stays alone. "This situation here is unfair. How can an 80-year-old granny stay alone? Someone must do something about this," said Masikhwa, adding that they were going take the matter to the social worker and monitor the situation.

A case of attempted rape was opened at the Vuwani police station. At the time of going to press, no arrest had been made yet.