The young woman who alleged that former Hard Livings gang leader Rashied Staggie ordered her gang-raped, told the court on Monday of her double-life as a police informant on the mean streets of Manenberg.
The woman told the Cape High Court she had become a police informant because she wanted to get rid of her Hard Livings gangster brother and brother-in-law who had caused her and the rest of their family to live in constant fear.
Because of their Hard Livings connections, the family became the target of the Americans gang whenever fights broke out between the two factions, the woman told the court.
She said Staggie visited her brother and brother-in-law at their home, especially before gang fights.
It is the state's case that Staggie ordered the woman gang-raped after he discovered she was an informant, and that he was present during the incident.
Because she was terrified of giving evidence in open court before her alleged attackers, the Cape High Court ruled her testimony could be given via closed-circuit television.
Although the law allowing child rape victims to testify via CCTV was extended to adults two years ago, this is the first time an adult has been allowed to give evidence in this way. The woman, 19, was 17 at the time of the alleged incident.
The Cape High Court is sitting in the Wynberg Regional Court building because there are no CCTV facilities at the high court in the city centre.
Staggie, 46, and Randall Bosch, 33, have both pleaded not guilty to charges of rape and kidnapping. Staggie also pleaded not guilty to a charge of possessing an illegal firearm.
It is the state's case that he and Bosch kidnapped the woman from Manenberg in August last year. It alleges Staggie, Bosch and two unknown men took her to Mitchell's Plain where Staggie forced her to have sex with the three other men in the back of his car "to regain his trust".
On Monday, the woman told the court her brother and three of his friends were arrested at her home after she had tipped police off about a zip-gun (home-made gun) her brother kept in the oven warming drawer, and ammunition her brother-in-law kept hidden between nappies.
"After our home was searched one day for guns and ammunition, I approached one of the policemen and told him I needed help. With every gang fight our windows would be shot at. I have a baby girl and feared for her life. I thought that with my brother and brother-in-law out of the house, we wouldn't come under fire any more.
"The policeman said the only way he could help was if I gave information. We met at Nyanga Junction and I told him about the zip-gun and bullets."
Her brother and his friends were later released and no charges were pressed, apparently because the police had found only one bullet.
The woman said her brother was "apparently" not charged in connection with the zip-gun.
On another occasion, she informed the police of an illegal gun at the home of a friend who was involved with a Hard Livings gang member.
During a police search where she was present, her friend hid the gun behind her back.
"I.showed police with my eyes that she had the gun. Because there was no female officers there, police asked us to search each other and I took the gun from her and handed it over."
To prevent the Hard Livings suspecting her of informing, she was also arrested and spent the night in the cells at Manenberg police station.
But the gangsters were suspicious of her, so she went to her original police contact and told him she no longer wished to give police information.
But she was persuaded by a pair of detectives to continue.
What followed was a "few months" of clandestine meetings where the woman would meet two officers twice a week.
She was paid for information and said she "heard" that her complicity had led to several arrests.
She told her mother she was getting money from a white woman she was working for. But her cover was blown when she introduced a woman she knew to her police contacts. The woman, married to an Americans gang member, was being beaten up and the teenager said she could help.
Early on the day the teenager was allegedly attacked by Staggie, she said she saw the Americans gangster's wife talking to Staggie in the street.
When she encountered the woman later that day, the woman was holding drugs and money.
"I wanted to talk to her, but she didn't want to talk to me. I saw the money and thought she could have received it from Rashied."
Later that day she encountered a Hard Livings gangster who called her a "traitor".
"I followed him and asked him for a cigarette. He said he didn't give cigarettes to traitors."
She then followed him to his house, where she saw the Americans gangster's wife smoking Mandrax with Hard Livings gangsters.
"I realised she could have told them I was giving information to the police. I was shocked. Everybody who spoke to her was angry with me.
"I left and when I approached my house, I saw Rashied's car parked outside. My brother-in-law was talking to him.
"I turned back and went around the corner. But Rashied pulled up next to me. He said we should meet later...
"He said if I was not guilty of anything, I need not be afraid." She then went home.
That evening she went out again and saw Staggie's car.
"I walked towards the car and saw Bosch sitting in the passenger seat and two other men in the back seat. Staggie ordered me to get into the car. I did because I was afraid."
Asked by prosecutor Helene Booysen why she did not simply run away, the woman said: "How far would I have got?"
They drove towards Mitchell's Plain.
"We turned down a road and there were lots of trees. There was also a field and I could see the lights from the houses opposite it."
Acting Justice Jeremy Sarkin stopped proceedings when the woman started showing signs of tiredness.