When I arrived at her house in Ramotse in Hammanskraal, she was out playing like any other young girl. A family member called her in and she came in shyly as she finds a stranger in her house. I asked for her name and she told me her name and we joked a little to prepare her for the conversation to fellow.
A neighbour that she has known since she was a child had sexually violated her for the whole night on the night of 22 June 2017.
Angel (as we will call her to protect her identity), says she had gone to watch late night TV stories at her front opposite neighbour’s house together with her sister because their TV had broken down on that fateful night.
At around 21:00, the alleged rapist allegedly called her on her cell phone from outside the yard where they were watching TV and pretended to be having a message for her from her older brother who works in Pretoria.
“Once outside, he started dragged me telling me to come with him and when I refused he started beating me and told me that he is not afraid of anyone at my family.
“When we arrived at his home I was screaming, he then covered my mouth telling me I was making noise. He then took me into his backroom, locked the door and threw away the key.
“That is when he started raping me for the entire night and took me home at 6am in the morning.
“I have always heard people say he wants my cell phone number and that he wanted me to be his girlfriend but I never thought a day like that night will come in my life.
“I now cannot focus at school as I always think about that night when he took away my childhood in such an inhumane and evil manner.
“I often isolate myself from other children because I do not feel safe and rather feel comfortable when I am on my own,” said Angel.
She said social workers only counselled her once since she was raped and on her next counselling session, she was told that the social worker to counsel her was not present and was not informed when to come back.
When Angel’s brother heard that his little sister has been raped, he became furious and came back from Pretoria. He went to buy petrol, went to the perpetrator’s house, and threatened to burn his house.
The family of the perpetrator managed to overpower the brother, tied him and poured him with the petrol and threatened to burn him. They then decided to call the police who arrested the brother for attempted murder.
The family member said the whole matter has affected the family negatively because now the brother who is the sole breadwinner in a child headed household is in jail and denied bail.
“The family is traumatised as the perpetrator walked the streets five days after he did this evil thing.
“As the family we organised community members through the “Not In My Name” organisation to march to Temba Police Station and that is only when the perpetrator was arrested again.
“We were told that our family member is denied bail because he is deemed to be a threat to the community but we were surprised that a person who has another case of allegedly raping a three year old in the past was granted bail,” said the family member.
The family member said the perpetrator’s mother told them that she knows people in the police service who will make sure that Angel’s brother goes to prison instead.
“I have lost hope and trust with our local police because they give first preference to the criminals but do not care about the victims,” the family member said.
Captain Herman Moremi of Temba Police Station said the rape case was still under investigation and said the police do not decide for the courts.
“Our work is to arrest people, what the court decides to do is out of our hands,” he said.
