Johannesburg - A fourth suspect has been arrested in connection with the brutal killing of two men and the rape of two women at Rhodes Park last year.
The two couples, who were visiting the Kensington, Joburg, park, were attacked by a large group of men last October.
The group allegedly raped the women, tied up the two men and threw them in the nearby lake, forcing the women to watch them drown.
The first two men, allegedly brandishing firearms, told the couples to lie on the ground, after which the other men began searching them and took their valuables. The attackers allegedly put their hands under the women’s skirts and sexually assaulted them.
The women were instructed to take off their clothes, and their breasts were fondled and searched, allegedly because the men believed they could be hiding more valuables.
The attackers then allegedly said that because they couldn’t find any money, they would throw the men in the water, a threat that became a grim reality.
While three arrests were made in Yeoville in a relatively short period afterwards, on Monday at the start of the trial for the initial three suspects, proceedings were interrupted by urgent news from the investigating officer. Prosecutor Monde Mbaqa told the high court sitting in Palm Ridge that the trial could not begin because police believed they had found a new suspect in Zimbabwe, who had been arrested.
He asked the court to roll over the case until this morning to allow police to determine if the man who had been arrested was the suspect they were looking for.
However, a source close to the investigation told The Star they were confident the man was the fourth suspect that police were looking for, and were hoping he would lead them to the suspects who may have fled the country.
The three initial suspects have been charged with robbery with aggravated circumstances, two counts of rape and two others of murder.
Last year, The Star revealed that one of the men had confessed, and had assisted police in detailing the crime and the location where it occurred.
The Star