Johannesburg - Looking at a picture of the ditch in which she and her young friend were raped proved too much for a 13-year-old Kliptown, Soweto, girl.
When her eyes rested on the picture, Tumi* turned her entire body away from it, covered her eyes with her hands and let out a painful wail. The intermediary seated next to her reached out and comforted her.
The State prosecutor had shown her the pictures and asked her to confirm whether it was where she was raped.
“It’s okay now, we’re done and you don’t have to see the pictures anymore or talk about this,” prosecutor Nerissa Muller told her afterwards.
Tumi is one of the 29 schoolgirls between the ages of six and 12 who Peter Dashboy Khosa, 40, allegedly raped over a period of five years. His rape spree is believed to have started in Limpopo in 2007 with the rape of a 10-year-old.
He then fled to Gauteng, where he allegedly continued to rape girls in Tembisa, Ivory Park, Olifantsfontein, Kliptown, Eldorado Park and Freedom Park.
Khosa would allegedly approach girls, who were in pairs or in groups, pretend to need help, then lead them to the bushes and rape them.
He faces 152 charges that include rape, kidnapping and assault, and has pleaded not guilty to all of them.
On Thursday, at the high court sitting in Palm Ridge, a shackled Khosa furiously wrote notes as he sat in the dock while Tumi explained to the court how he had lured them to the bushes under the pretext of needing their help.
Tumi, who was nine years old at the time, said Khosa had taken out a mealie meal bag while they were in the ditch and raped Zanele on it first after applying Zambuk ointment to her vagina. When he was done, he allegedly grabbed Tumi and raped her on the same mealie meal bag.
The Star
* Not ther real name.