Premier: No bail and harsher sentences

North West premier Thandi Modise. File picture: Bongiwe Mchunu

North West premier Thandi Modise. File picture: Bongiwe Mchunu

Published Feb 12, 2013

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North West - Harsher measures are needed to combat rape, North West premier Thandi Modise said on Tuesday.

“We reiterate our call for united and intensified action against the scourge of rape,” she said in a statement.

This included no bail and harsher sentences.

Modise was responding to the rape of a 27-year-old woman in Makwassie, near Wolmaransstad, on Saturday morning.

She commended police for arresting seven suspects, aged between 18 and 21, soon after the attack.

The alleged rapists accosted the woman and her husband and stole their cellphones at knife point, Captain Amanda Funani said on Monday.

The men took the woman away and allegedly raped her, while the boyfriend ran to summon police.

Modise called on people to help police “reclaim our streets and neighbourhoods from criminals”.

Sexual violence has been in the spotlight since the gang rape and murder of Anene Booysen, 17, in Bredasdorp, Western Cape, on February 2.

Booysen's attack was widely condemned. The African National Congress Women's League called for a commission of inquiry into rape and gender-based violence. - Sapa

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