Following the horrific gang rape of a Dobsonville teenage girl, two Soweto women yesterday spoke of their life-shattering encounter with an Avalon Cemetery rapist.
In August 2010, a 28-year-old woman of Chiawelo, who cannot be identified, had gone to the cemetery to clean her child’s tombstone. While there she was approached by three men.
“Two of them stood on the side while the other man came up to me. He told me his friends would clean up the tombstone for me for R20,” she said. She initially declined but the man insisted that it was fine and he appeared to be kind.
He also cautioned her that she had to take a different route home because many people were robbed in the area. Trusting the man, the woman said she let him accompany her on her journey home. They walked towards a railway line while the other two men stayed behind.
“Moments later, he pushed me into a ditch and undressed me. He (tried to) strangle me. I fought hard to get up and tried yelling, but he pinned me down, banging my head on the ground,” she said. She added at the time that a metro police vehicle passed them, but no one noticed what was happening.
“When he was finished, he took my panties, cellphone and a spade he was carrying and ran off.”
She ran to a nearby funeral parlour for help and was assisted by an undertaker, who alerted the police.
The man was arrested shortly afterwards and is due to appear in court on Monday. She said she now feared men.
“The experience was painful. I no longer go to the cemetery.”
Her grandmother revealed that it was not the first time her granddaughter had been raped.
“E* was born mentally disabled. She was raped at a young age and up to this day we don’t know where the culprit was. Her mother left her when she was only six months old. I’ve raised her since then.”
Another 22-year-old rape victim said she had also been at the cemetery, with her mother, in the same year, when she was approached by a man claiming it was dangerous for the two women to walk in the area.
“He said he would show us an alternative route. On our way home he accompanied us and seemed nice.
“However, halfway home he changed his behaviour and asked us what we’d do if he became violent. At first we thought he was joking, but then he stood in front of us and blocked our way.”
The man later demanded that the young woman and her mother give him their cellphones and money.
“It was raining that day. We told him we didn’t have any money. He ordered me to take my clothes off but I refused. He then threatened to kill my mother and I.”
The woman said she still refused to undress. The suspect held her and placed his hand in her skirt.
“He said I should co-operate. He said he was going to rape me and my mother would watch how he did it.
“I couldn’t scream. I was scared that he’d kill us. Soon afterwards he stood up and washed his penis with water from the rain and walked away.” The Soweto resident and her mother headed straight to the clinic and later to the Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital, where they were asked to also go to the police station. This culprit too was arrested.
“I’ve been violated as a young woman in South Africa… Although my mother blames herself for being unable to do anything, I take comfort in the fact we are both alive. She understands what I’ve been through. No one is safe. We are not safe. Someone can only understand the devastating impact of rape once they have gone through it themselves,” she said.
This week the ANC Women’s League, public personalities and rape activists lashed out at the rape of a 17-year-old mentally ill girl by seven men between the ages of 14 and 20.
The incident of the girl, who had been missing since March 25, was filmed on a cellphone and has since gone viral. She was found in the shack of a Braamfischerville man who kept her against her will.
The man appeared yesterday at the Roodepoort Magistrate’s Court. Seven others, including minors, seen in a cellphone video, appeared in court on Thursday. Their case was postponed until April 25 for further investigation.
-- iol.co.za
Four of the seven males suspected of gang-raping a 17-year-old Soweto girl walk to the Roodepoort Magistrate's Court. Picture: Chris Collingridge
