Community arrests child rape suspect

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Published Oct 20, 2014

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Cape Town - Police have commended the community of Khayelitsha for making a citizen’s arrest when residents there arrested a man - suspected of having raped two children in the area - and handed him over to police.

Police spokesperson FC Van Wyk said the 30-year-old man was arrested at the weekend.

“The suspect is still in custody and is soon to appear in the Khayelitsha Magistrate’s Court. Colonel Mkhuseli Nkwintshi of the Khayelitsha cluster office applauded the community members for their good work,” said Van Wyk.

On Sunday the grandmother of one of the children who had been raped relived the ordeal and explained how she had tracked down the man who had allegedly raped the child.

Neither the girl nor her grandmother can be named. The grandmother is raising the child because her mother works in a different city.

She said the incident was believed to have taken place on Thursday when the man allegedly lured the six-year-old girl and her seven-year-old friend to a nearby butcher where he promised to feed them and their families.

The man allegedly told the children that he would buy R100 worth of meat but the girls were then allegedly dragged to a shebeen where they were raped.

“She was wearing her little yellow school uniform when he did that,” said the grandmother, adding that she had only been made aware of the incident when she had noted the child’s bloodstained clothes and the bruises on her body the following day.

“I was so furious, my friend had to calm me down and prevent me from doing anything I might later regret,” she said, adding that on the day of the incident, her granddaughter, a Grade R pupil at a local school, had arrived home at about 1pm.

She then walked about 2km to her friend’s house.

But on the following day, the grandmother said she had been informed that the child had been seen at a shebeen.

“I stormed into her room and examined her. Her arms, legs and feet were swollen.”

After hours of trying to find out from the girl what happened, the grandmother said she then took the child to the shebeen where the cashier had recognised the girl, saying she had been there the day before with a man wearing a blue jeans and black shirt.

“I saw a man come out of the toilet and my baby froze. She closed her eyes, was shaking uncontrollably and I knew it was him that did it,” the grandmother said.

The child then told her grandmother about the incident and the community arrested the man and reported the incident at the police station.

Van Wyk confirmed that a case of rape had been opened.

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Cape Times

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