A Cape Town woman who was gang-raped after responding to a job advert on Gumtree has died, a report said.
According to the Cape Times,
a friend and former colleague sent out an SMS on Sunday saying her “dear friend passed away peacefully today at 5pm. Thanks for all your prayers and support, may God bless you”.
The 38-year-old Claremont woman had managed to tell her friends and neighbour what happened before having a seizure and being admitted to ICU.
According to a Cape Times report, about a month ago the woman had apparently responded to an advert offering casual employment for stocktakers on the popular classifieds site Gumtree.
She was told that transport had been arranged to ferry the stocktakers from a meeting point to the Pick n Pay store in Observatory, where they would work the night shift.
A friend told the Cape Times: “She was unemployed, but she phoned me to say she had at least found casual work to do some stocktaking. She was told to be there by 8.30pm, but the earlier she arrived the better.”
She arrived at 7pm on a Sunday. She joined a group of other passengers, who she assumed were job seekers, on a minibus that drove to the Observatory store.
“She got off the bus,” the friend said, “but was told to get back on as it was so cold.
“One of the men said he would check if there were still places for more stocktakers, but later returned and said the positions were all taken and that those on the bus could have complimentary tea, coffee and juice for their efforts.”
The woman told her friend she drank some of the juice and began to feel very sick.
The last thing she remembered was being hit over the head, but she could not recall any other details.
In the early hours of the following morning, she woke up on a stretch of grass in Table View with all her belongings missing, apart from her cellphone. According to her friend, she then called a taxi driver friend who took her home.
Her neighbour told the Cape Times that he had been awoken by the sound of the woman trying to break down her front door at 3am. “She was in shock and I noticed that her pants were torn,” he said. “I then took her to the trauma section at Groote Schuur where she was examined by a doctor.”
She told her neighbour later that semen from four men had been found in her body, and another friend was then called to take care of her, the report said.
The second friend told the Cape Times that the woman remembered nothing after she was hit over the head.
“From what we have been able to piece together, it sounds like she was out cold for approximately five hours.”
The advert had been removed from Gumtree within two days of being posted, but last week a Cape Times reader came forward to say she had a copy of the advert in her e-mails as she had sent it on to various family members last month.
South African Police Services confirmed that the case had been reported.