Cape Town - A hunt for a UCT Rhodes Must Fall (RMF) student activist, alleged to have raped a fellow member of the movement, has ended after the 24-year-old man was arrested on Tuesday.
A group of angry RMF members had bashed down the door of the man’s flat in Forest Hill, Mowbray, on Monday night. He escaped after jumping from the balcony and the search continued on Tuesday morning.
A statement from RMF read: “The rapist had escaped down the balcony, is on the run once again. He will be found and brought to radical justice.”
Police spokesperson Andre Traut confirmed the man had been arrested on Tuesday afternoon and a rape case had been opened for investigation.
He will appear in the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court on Thursday.
On Monday a student posted about her alleged sexual assault on Facebook, saying it took place on Sunday night at Avenue House (dubbed Azania House by #RhodesMustFall members) at the university.
After naming the male student who allegedly assaulted her, she said: “I was sleeping and then I wake up to feel fingers up my vagina. I then wake up to go cry in the bathroom and try to wake up the men in this space. It takes moments of pleading and eventually me tipping over tables and f***ing sh*t up before n*****s are able to wake up and come to the point of addressing the fact that a whole womyn body has been violated in the darkness of the night (sic).”
The Facebook post has since been deleted, but the man she identified’s name and photograph was shared widely on social media.
The alleged rape galvanised students to hold a vigil on Monday, while others used the ground outside the Cissie Gool Mall at UCT as a canvas to write messages condemning gender-based violence.
Students offered their support on Facebook. Some said naming and shaming her alleged attacker was “not right” because he was “innocent until proven guilty”.
Cape Times and Cape Argus