Woman tells of kidnap, rape

DURBAN 20-11-2012 Former Blue Bulls Joseph Ntshongwane in Court. Picture by: S'bonelo Ngcobo

DURBAN 20-11-2012 Former Blue Bulls Joseph Ntshongwane in Court. Picture by: S'bonelo Ngcobo

Published Nov 21, 2012

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Durban -

A young woman has testified in the Durban High Court about how former Blue Bulls rugby player Joseph Ntshongwana, on trial for murder and other crimes, had kidnapped and raped her after she met him while on a casual stroll.

The 23-year-old woman sobbed throughout her testimony.

She told the court she was approached by Ntshongwana on the evening of November 28, 2010, while she was walking in Joseph Nduli (Russell) Street, in Durban.

He had greeted her and asked her to go for a drive with him, she said.

“I told him I couldn’t get into a stranger’s car and he laughed. He looked like a normal person,” said the woman, who cannot be named.

“When I said I couldn’t get in [the car] his face changed and he said, ‘C’mon, Joe’, as if he was speaking to someone he knew,” she said. “I told him he was speaking to the wrong person and he laughed.”

The woman said she eventually got into the car and asked Ntshongwana to drop her at her flat in Park Street.

“When we reached Park Street he didn’t stop, despite me telling him to do so. He kept smiling. I told myself maybe he was just fooling around.”

The woman said Ntshongwana spoke to her in Xhosa and English, asking her questions she did not understand. He asked her why she was pretending not to know him, she said.

In the car, she said he asked if she had had sex with a Xhosa boy. “When I said no, he said, ‘Today, I’m going to show you what it feels like’,” she said.

They went to a house where he took her into a bedroom and locked the door.

He stripped to his underwear and got into bed. The woman said she told him she wanted to use the toilet, because she wanted to SMS her sister. He allegedly refused to let her go.

She said he asked her where she had been on that Friday and she told him she had been to church.

“He [Ntshongwana] became infuriated and said I was lying. He said I was with my other boyfriend. When I told him I didn’t have a boyfriend, he asked if I knew what he did to people who lied to him,” she testified. “He told me he had killed someone. I was confused. I didn’t know what he was talking about.”

The woman said he had asked her to get into bed with him. As she lay on the edge of the bed, he asked her to come closer and then got on top of her, she said, adding she tried to resist by kicking her legs.

Ntshongwana has pleaded not guilty to charges of rape and kidnapping, as well as four counts of murder, in which three of his alleged victims were decapitated, and two of attempted murder.

Before the woman’s testimony, the families of some of the victims claimed that Ntshongwana’s family was being given preferential treatment in court.

A fuss broke out after Acting Judge Irfaan Khalil ordered the packed gallery to be cleared for her testimony. During a short adjournment to clear the court, Ntshongwana’s mother Phyllina Letlaka, told state advocate Rea Mina, that she did not hear the ruling for the matter to be held in camera.

After the adjournment, Ntshongwana’s attorney Themba Mjoli, made an application to allow the accused’s family to sit for the testimony of the alleged rape victim.

Mina opposed the application, arguing that their presence was unnecessary. -Daily News

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