Johannesburg - There were murmurs of disbelief and moments of stunned silence in court when a 16-year-old witness described how he and others gang-raped women after hitting them with a golf club.
Hearing the chilling evidence proved too much for the mother of Tebogo Manenje, one of the people implicated in the gang rapes, and she burst into tears.
The teenage witness is one of a group of 17 people accused of terrorising the community of Freedom Park, south of Joburg, in 2011 by assaulting them with a golf club, then robbing and raping them.
They face various counts, including murder, rape, attempted murder and robbery with aggravated circumstances.
Manenje, Tshepo Makhele, Tumelo Makgatho, Thabo Padi, Thabiso Motau, Lucas Sihle, Thomas Magezi, Donald Tshiboho, Ndivhuwo Matshisa, Mabaso Khosa, Lawrence Hilario, Sifiso Dayi, Mongezi Xaba, Obakeng Buthelezi, Petros Mokoena and Khonjiwe Madonsela all pleaded not guilty.
The teenager, who cannot be named as he is a minor, has now become a State witness, and charges against him have been dropped.
Testifying on Wednesday in the Johannesburg High Court, sitting at the Palm Ridge Magistrate’s Court, the teenager said that one day while walking in Freedom Park, he saw a metal bed in the veld and sold it to a scrapyard.
Afterwards some men approached him and told him they knew he sold their bed. They did not have a problem with that, but told him he could use their shack to smoke dagga because they knew he smoked it.
Upon his arrival at the shack, Padi told him the shack was the “parliament”, and that he was the “president”. One day while they were at the parliament, Padi took a golf club from under the bed and said people should be hit with it as it was a fast and convenient tool to use in robbing people.
One night the teen, Manenje, Padi and Makgatho went in search of victims and saw an old woman approach, singing. They scattered and hid.
Padi then approached the old woman from behind and hit her on the head with the golf club. She fell to the ground. The gang dragged her to the bushes, then took her phone and money.
Afterwards they all raped her.
“She did not fight back. She was quiet and powerless,” the teenager said.
They went to the parliament afterwards and found Madonsela, Padi’s lover at the time. The teenager said Padi then gave her the phone to sell.
Their next victims were two girls. The teen, Manenje and Makhele were returning from the parliament one night when they saw the two girls approach.
Manenje hit one of the girls with a golf club. They then grabbed their phones and took turns raping them.
The teen, aged 15 at the time, said that if their victims were women, they were not only assaulted and robbed but raped too.
Asked by Judge Geraldine Borchers why he raped and whether he was sexually aroused, the teenager, who turns 17 next month, replied: “I didn’t have the urge to have sex ,but I couldn’t just look at people having sex.”
The trial continues.
The Star