Police Minister Bheki Cele has promised to personally intervene in the case of a pregnant Strand resident fearing for her life after being raped, allegedly by an officer.
She has since relocated to a place of safety for fear of intimidation following the incident on July 4. The woman, whose named is withheld, alleges the officer picked her up from her home and dropped two of his colleagues at a police station before she was driven to an isolated place where she was raped. She reported the matter at Lwandle police station.
Police have launched a disciplinary hearing against the officer, but were mum on whether he was suspended pending the outcome of the hearing. “The criminal aspect (rape case) of the case is dealt with by Ipid (The Independent Police Investigative Directorate). The disciplinary procedure is not disclosed as it is regarded an internal matter between the employer and the employee,” police said.
Cele said: “We really want to reverse that scourge of men thinking women are owned by them. “We can’t send the police to defend the weak and vulnerable and they prey on them. There are good police and bad police as well. We shall not fail to take steps against those that are bad. I would personally like to get on that case,” he said.
Cele said provincial Police Commissioner Khombinkosi Jula “will have to act on that and act immediately”.
Ipid has launched a probe but was yet to take her statement. The 18-year-old said she was yet to receive counselling.
She detailed her ordeal, saying: “They (police) searched the house and later said they had found drugs and I must come with them. They also took money placed beneath a Bible. They drove me to Lwandle police station and asked me to wait in the police van while they went inside.
“After several minutes, one police officer came and drove to Strand police station; there he left me inside the vehicle. When he returned, he said he had helped me avoid arrest in connection with the drugs and it was payback time. He said he wanted sex, but I refused.
‘‘He drove me to an isolated place behind industrial buildings and forced himself on me,” said the teenager.
Her legal representative Mandy Jaffer said the condom used was found at the scene and taken as evidence.