A Northern Province woman was saved from a would-be rapist at the weekend by her firm grasp of the situation.
She reportedly seized her attacker's erect member and bent it - causing him to collapse in agony - while she escaped.
"He screamed a lot," said a Lowveld police spokesperson, Inspector Moatshe Ngoepe. "It was a very good prevention mechanism."
Ngoepe said the man dragged the 23-year-old woman into the bush at Shingalo village near Giyani, threatening to kill her. After ordering her to undress, he removed his own clothes.
"He was about to penetrate when that woman grabbed the penis and broke it," he said.
Ngoepe said he assumed the man - who fled - was badly injured, because when the woman returned to the scene with police, they found spots of blood.
Police were concentrating their search on hospitals and health centres, where he was expected to seek treatment.
Ngoepe said rape was a common problem in the area, and though the police did not encourage communities to take the law into their own hands, "private defence" was another matter.
"She was very brave because it was deep in the bush, far from everything," he said. - Sapa