Cape Town - A recovering drug addict claims he was sexually assaulted by two fellow clients at a Cape Flats rehabilitation centre to punish him for being gay.
The 36-year-old says he was also beaten with a sjambok and had human faeces thrown at him.
On Tuesday, Mogamat Yushree Jacobs of Mitchells Plain said he immediately went to police after he managed to “escape” from the Akhbar Rehabilitation Centre in Olieboom Road in Schaapkraal.
Police confirmed that a charge of rape has been opened for investigation following the alleged incident on January 30.
Jacobs, a former call centre agent, admits he was addicted to heroin for 12 years, but went into rehab eight months ago.
He claims that on Monday, while cleaning a manager’s house in Grassy Park, he made a run for it, straight to the Philippi Police Station.
He says he was targeted after striking up a “friendship” with a new client, and they were caught “holding hands”.
Jacobs says following his successful rehabilitation, he became a counsellor and assisted in administration at the centre, where he met his new friend.
“We were having a one-on-one session and I was holding his hands when the manager came in,” he says.
“We were told to end the friendship and people were assigned to watch me and this person.”
Jacobs, who shares a room with 16 others, says he was not aware that Akhbar Rehab uses corporal punishment in their programmes.
And they performed falaka (foot whipping) on him.
“They placed me in a room where the new people are to punish me, and then they beat me with a sjambok which left me blue and black and I could not walk for a few days,” he claims.
The alleged beating was followed by “a night of torture” and the alleged sex attack in which two clients were ordered to rub themselves against him and put their penis in his mouth.
“The woke me up at midnight and said I must just wear my underwear,” he says.
“They took water filled with human waste and threw it onto me and ordered that I get into the pool with the other clients who were there.
“The one who we called ‘the father of the house’ placed my head under the water and it felt like I was going to pass out.
“Then they ordered me to get out and told the one client to stand behind me and to grind me with his penis. The other they said must shove his penis in my mouth. These men were forced to do it by the ‘father’.”
While covered in faeces, he was ordered to stand from 2am to 10am “without moving”.
“They then had clients shout at and insult me by saying things like I did not come to the rehab for drugs, but to do boys,” he says.
“The management knew I was gay when I arrived, and had no problem with it.”
Police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Andrè Traut confirms: “This office can confirm that Philippi police is investigating a case of rape. The suspect is known and has not been arrested as yet pending the outcome of the investigation.”
On Tuesday, the Daily Voice visited Akhbar Rehabilitation Centre where staff said they knew Jacobs.
They, however, declined to comment on the incident and said they would communicate queries to the manager, but would not provide his phone number.
The manager, whose name is known to the Daily Voice, failed to respond.
The centre is not listed in the telephone directories and contact details could not be found on the internet.