Johannesburg - What was supposed to be a fun night out turned out to be a weekend from hell for a young woman who was allegedly kidnapped from a Sandton club and later raped in the early hours of Sunday.
Innocentia Morolong, 25, went out with a group of friends to the Hydro Club, on Boulevard in Rivonia, to attend the Supreme Sundays session hosted by model Babalwa Mneno.
The Central University of Technology student, from Welkom in the Free State, said that while they were having fun at the popular club, her best friend’s ex-boyfriend arrived during the early hours of Monday morning.
“I went to the bathroom, and when I came back I found him fighting with one of my friends. I told him he can’t fight with people in public and he said we should go talk about it outside the club,” she said.
About 4am, they went outside and sat in his car, and that’s when her nightmare allegedly started. “While he was explaining what happened, he started the car and drove off with me, without my permission.
“I asked him where he was taking me, because I had left my bag and friends in the club. He just kept on driving,” Morolong said.
The 30-year-old man allegedly drove to his house in Kempton Park. “When we got to his house, he started strangling me. He said he was going to kill me. He said who the hell do I think I am to refuse sleeping with him. He then raped me,” Morolong said. She said the man used a condom during the sexual assault.
The man, who cannot be named as he has not appeared in court yet, paints a picture of being well connected on his social media pages.
The man’s Instagram is littered with pictures of himself with leading politicians like Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, President Jacob Zuma, former Department of Higher Education and Training deputy minister Mduduzi Manana and Small Business Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu.
During the alleged assault, Morolong sent frantic WhatsApp messages, seen by The Star, to her friends, begging for help. They arrived at the scene with the police.
“When they got there, they found the condom he used. He acted like everything was normal. They took a statement from me,” she said.
Speaking to The Star on Thursday, the man rubbished the claims. “She’s crazy. She is just looking for fame. I have 17 witnesses who are cops who forced themselves into my house because they thought she was in danger, and they found her sleeping nicely in my bed. They had to wake her up.”
He admitted he left the Sandton club with her but said they did not have sex when they got to his house. “She can’t claim I took her forcefully from Sandton to Kempton Park. Does she mean that between the two places there was no chance she could jump out of the car?
“She is damaging my name. She has nothing to lose and she is dragging my politician friends into this whole thing. Minister Zulu is my good friend, and she called me to find out what my side of the story is, and I told her.”
He said that if charged, he was willing to go to court. “I will not run. There is no case here. We will just waste money on lawyer’s fees and the court’s time. Let her do what she wants to do and we will prove each other wrong in court.”
Sandton police spokesperson Captain Mohlaume Mamabolo confirmed that a case of rape and kidnapping was opened and they were looking for the suspect. The Star was reliably informed that when police contacted the suspect on Thursday, he claimed he was in Durban and couldn’t meet with them.
The law prohibits the naming of rape victims, but Morolong gave The Star permission to use her name.