Police probing whether a repeat rapist may be stalking female students at the University of the Western Cape have issued an identikit.
They are appealing to members of the public to assist.
This comes after they received a second rape complaint with the same modus operandi in a year.
Police have detailed how a suspect they were hunting after an earlier rape could be the same man in the latest incident. He also pretended to protect a UWC student, only to rape her inside a toilet on campus.
It has happened again, despite security measures such as CCTV cameras.
Police have reason to believe the man is not a student.
Police say that in the latest incident, he had accompanied a student to her residence on March 3 at about 11.15pm at the UWC campus in Bellville South.
The student had been out with friends and had gone to use the bathroom. When she returned, her friends had left.
The victim had been sitting in a social area drinking with her friends. She was unstable and the suspect then said he knew where her friends went and would walk with her.
He got her to a room, but then she had to go to the bathroom to throw up. It was there that he overpowered her while she was sick and took advantage of her.
The incident followed another UWC student being raped by an unidentified man nearly a year ago.
That student said she had yet to find closure after her case was closed because the suspect could not be traced.
Police spokesperson Andre Traut said: “We are looking into the circumstances of both cases to determine (a link).”
The student in last year’s incident said police could not trace the suspect captured on CCTV footage.
She had been followed by an unknown man to a bathroom at UWC on May 6, 2017 after a night out with friends at The Barn, a UWC bar, and was raped in the bathroom.
“There were cameras that even picked up his face, but they can’t see him. So what is the point of the camera then? It could not stop him, but I have to live with this for the rest of my life.”
She said she wanted justice to be served.
UWC acting spokesperson Cheryl Africa said they were reviewing their rape policy in conjunction with student structures and the gender equity unit.
She said the university had co-operated with the
police, providing video footage and information about potential witnesses to last year’s incident.
Africa said the institution was rolling out intensive first-responder training to a wide range of campus stakeholders to reduce secondary trauma and to encourage survivors to seek further care.
“To address the gender-based violence more broadly, the university is embarking on gender reconciliation training,” she said.
Lawyers for Human Rights attorney Sanja Bornman, who is assisting the student raped last year, said: “We were advised by the Delft Family, Child and Sexual (FCS) Violence Unit that the suspect is ‘untraceable’, and they have closed the docket until new information becomes available.”
Bornman said they were not satisfied with this outcome, especially in light of the available video footage.
Anyone with information about the suspect can contact Sergeant Dale Franks of Delft FCS on 082 522 1048 or Crime Stop confidentially on 080010111, alternatively SMS Crime Line on 32211.