In what appears to have been a targeted attack and a case of mistaken identity, a *woman was viciously assaulted after a night out with friends in Grahamstown.
In what appears to have been a targeted attack and a case of mistaken identity, a *woman was viciously assaulted after a night out with friends in Grahamstown.
Adding insult to injury, she was confronted again by her jeering attackers only a few days later.
Neliswa Songelwa told Grocott's Mail she was leaving Phola's Club in Tantyi with a friend in the early hours of Sunday 2 November, when a taxi stopped and offered them a lift. When Songelwa tried to board the taxi, however, the driver pulled off. One of the men held her hand while the taxi gathered speed.
What followed was an unprovoked attack, apparently based on the men's mistaking Songelwa for a policewoman.
"I was crying and screaming, 'Let me go!' – but he didn't," Songelwa said. "I tried pulling my hand away, but I couldn't because he held it tight."
As she tried to free herself, the man began stabbing her hand and breasts, she said. Eventually she freed herself of his grip.
The taxi continued to drive off, but soon stopped again and three men came running towards her. Saying she had hurt their friend, they started beating her up and burning her with cigarettes. Songelwa said that her friend tried to stop them, but they pushed her aside and threatened to do the same to her.
"These guys could have killed me if the woman with three men in a white City Golf did not stop and ask them why they were beating up a woman like that," Songelwa said.
"The City Golf owner gave us a ride back home even though his car was overloaded," she said.
Songelwa said she went to the Police on Monday and opened up a case against her attackers.
On Tuesday 4 November she was standing at the taxi rank when one of the attackers started mocking her. She said they were telling someone that they had dragged a policewoman alongside a taxi and later beat up a woman in front of Phola's Club.
"Laughing and continuously staring at me, he said they had 'shown that policewoman'," Songelwa said.
She left her parcels at the taxi rank and went to the police station. She accompanied the on-duty officers to find the men at the taxi rank.
Police spokesperson Captain Milanda Coetzer said two suspects were arrested and charged with assault, and they went to court, where they were released on warning.
* In the original published version of this story we mistakenly referred to Songelwa as a policewoman. She is not. The confusion arose from hher attackers referring to her as such.
