A 57-year-old South African rape victim has accused her investigating police officer of “sweeping her case under the carpet” because he lives in the same village with one of her two attackers.
The woman, who was raped repeatedly by two young men in the presence of her husband, is suffering double jeopardy following the release of her alleged attackers by the police under mysterious circumstances.
“I even do not discuss this with my own children. They know that we have been robbed but not that I was also raped,” she said.
She believes the investigating officer, who lives in the same village as one of her attackers, is behind the “cover-up”.
“As a complainant, I should have been visited several times by the police, but they have not. That’s why I suspect that since the investigating officer is from Mashau village where one of the suspects stays, the case may have been swept under the carpet.”
It all began on the night of January 31 when two men and a woman stormed the dormitory they lived in on a farm in Levubu near Makhado, Venda.
They allegedly assaulted her and her husband and robbed them of their cellphones. The men took her to a section of the dormitory where they took turns raping her. “My husband witnessed the whole incident.”
Chipping in her husband said: “After the incident, I realised that we were not safe and we have since moved from the farm residence.
“I had to endure seeing the two boys taking turns raping my wife, and since I feared being killed there was nothing I could do.”
He regretted that the police had not updated them on the case ever since.
The woman, who is thankful to be alive, was only able to escape when the men moved to ransack another room. “They said since they did not get money from me, they were going to kill me despite the fact that they raped me. I am lucky to be alive.”
The couple were only able to recognise two out of the three suspects – a man and a woman related to her husband. The trio were later arrested but mysteriously released within three days.
Limpopo police spokesman Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi said they would dispatch a team of detectives to see the complainants to establish “what really happened” and ensure that justice prevailed.