Potchefstroom – A 38-year-old man is expected to appear in the Orkney Magistrate’s Court on Monday on charges of murder, abduction, and two counts of rape, North West police said.
The man’s appearance followed an intensive search by police in Orkney, with the assistance of their counterparts in Vierfontein in the Free State, that led to his arrest on Saturday on a plot along the Leeudoringstad-Orkney road, Colonel Sabata Mokgwabone said.
According to information, the suspect allegedly assaulted a 38-year-old man with a knobkerrie, stabbed him with a knife, and slit his throat on Friday in Ysterspruit near Orkney. He then allegedly covered the victim’s body with a mattress and set it alight.
“It is alleged that the suspect continued his criminal acts by abducting a woman and later raped her. The woman was later found during the search fastened to a tractor inside a storeroom at a farm near Vierfontein,” Mokgwabone said.
“It is alleged that the suspect also assaulted his girlfriend’s family members in Kanana [a] few days [before], leading to the horrific incidents and is also expected to face several charges of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm,” he said.
North West provincial police commissioner Lt-Gen Baile Motswenyane lauded the police in Orkney in North West and in the Free State for their work that led to the suspect’s arrest.
Criminals had no space within communities and police “will nail and put them in jail where they belong”, she said.
African News Agency (ANA)