A suspended 33-year-old police constable, who was out on bail in a murder case, appeared in the Empangala Magistrate’s Court in Gauteng on Wednesday for allegedly raping a 15-year-old girl.
The Independent Investigative Directorate (IPID) said in a statement that the police officer was suspended in 2013 for allegedly murdering 40-year-old Boy Mahlangu.
He was part of a group of four police officers who on Christmas day, 2013, allegedly dragged Mahlangu behind a police vehicle after accusing him of driving an unroadworthy vehicle. He died later in a local clinic.
IPID spokesman Moses Dlamini said he had been granted bail in the murder case.
Dlamini said the constable allegedly raped the teenager in the early hours of Sunday morning.
“The complainant alleges that on Saturday, 14 January 2017, she was walking with her friend from RDP section B to Makarina Tavern when a police officer whose children she went to school with, stopped his car next to her, while her friend was a few steps ahead.
“The police officer was in a car with his friend. It is alleged that the police officer ordered the complainant to get into his vehicle, threatening to shoot her if she didn’t. She duly complied and the police officer drove away after which the policeman dropped his friend at another tavern. It is alleged that the police officer drove to a gravel road and raped the victim”.
When the girl returned home and told her mother what had happened, she called the police.
IPID investigators took over the investigation and after the victim was medically examined and interviewed, the constable was arrested.
In the murder case against him, he is expected back in court on February 24.
-African News Agency (ANA)
