A team of around 60 people, including senior police officers, was dispatched to find a woman who went missing after she and a friend were accosted by armed men in Grahamstown on Friday night 2 October.
A team of around 60 people, including senior police officers, was dispatched to find a woman who went missing after she and a friend were accosted by armed men in Grahamstown on Friday night 2 October.
The woman was found unharmed. Her friend, who was raped, raised the alarm and police treated the incident as a possible kidnapping. Both women are in their 30s.
Police spokesperson Captain Mali Govender said around 9pm on Friday 2 October, a woman reported to the Joza Police Station that she and her friend were walking along a foot path in Extension 6 when they were accosted by two unknown men.
Threatening the women with a knife and a panga, they robbed one of her cellphone. "The victims were separated at this stage," Govender said. "One was raped and the other went missing." Govender said the police wasted no time.
"As soon as the report was received, all units at the station were mobilised as well as the community police forums," Govender said. "A search for the missing victim was launched."
Govender said the search team, numbering around 60, included the station commander, Colonel Syed Cassim, the Detective Branch Commander Lt Colonel Kevin Seymour, the Head of Support Lt Colonel Butch Strydom and Nozukile Stof, the community police forum chairperson.
"They moved from street to street and home to home searching for the missing victim and the suspects," Govender said. Around 11pm, police received information which they followed up on.
"The victim was found unharmed and two suspects arrested," Govender said. "They face several charges including rape, robbery and possession of drugs. Grahamstown Cluster Commander Brigadier Morgan Govender praised the team for their commitment and perseverance.
Councillor called
In a second incident. around 8am on Saturday 3 October, Ward 11 councillor Mncedisi Gojela was called on to intervene when members of the community caught a man they suspected of being one of four who raped a woman in the derelict Benjamin Mahlasela school the previous night.
"They called me around 8am," Gojela told Grocott's Mail, two hours later on Saturday 3 October. "There were about 100 people when I got there, and they said two women had been raped there."
Gojela called the police, who took away the man the group had seized, while he went to help look for the victims. Gesturing to a young man seated in the Joza Charge office, he said, "They found this guy nearby and showed him some clothes they'd found in the building and asked if they were his.
"He said yes, and so they said he must be the rapist." Gojela said, "The boy explained that he was sleeping there because he had an elder brother who was violent and was afraid to sleep at home."
Gojela called the police.
He said the young man was co-operative and seemed to want to clear his name as quickly as possible. Gojela, meanwhile went to the woman's home to persuade her to report the incident. Captain Mali Govender confirmed the case, but police had recorded only one woman being raped.
A woman was walking alone from Extension 7 to Extension 6 around 11pm, when four men accosted her, Captain Mali Govender said. They took her cellphone before dragging her to the derelict Benjamin Mahlasela school. The woman, in her mid-20s, was hit over the head with a metal bar, Govender said, and the four men raped her.
"She was severely traumatised and not in a sober state when the report was made," Govender said. "With little information to go on, a case of rape was opened. The information was circulated and with the community's assistance, a 19-year-old suspect was arrested."
Gojela said he'd been petitioning the Department of Public Works to demolish the school. The school closed in 2012 because of insufficient pupil numbers. There were 11 teachers for only 90 pupils. The Education Department's prescribed teach-pupil ratio across the province is one to 30.
At one point the Amasango Career School looked set to occupy the premises; however, an inspection determined that it was structurally unsafe. Gojela said the derelict building had become a crime hotspot.
