Grabouw - The daughter of a Grabouw councillor is the latest gang-rape victim – by two men she considered good friends and who were trusted by her family.
The 22-year-old, with her leg shaking uncontrollably, on Tuesday told the Cape Times about her ordeal on Saturday. She cried as she recalled how the two suspects pushed her against a wall and took turns to rape her.
Her father decided to go public, saying the justice system failed rape victims because his daughter’s attackers were released on R500 bail each.
“The bail means there is something seriously wrong with the justice system. I don’t know if it’s just here in Grabouw or everywhere, but we are not happy about that,” the father said.
This case comes exactly three weeks after the rape and murder of Anene Booysen, 17, of Bredasdorp.
The woman said: “I never suspected anything before because we were good friends and I trusted them.”
She used to date one of the men, whom she has known since 2006. The other suspect was her sister’s boyfriend for the past 18 months. Her sister broken up with him after the rape.
Her father said: “I know both guys very well and I am shocked because… they came into my house all the time. They were like my children.”
The victim was at a club with the two suspects and her boyfriend on Friday evening and then slept at her boyfriend’s house.
On Saturday morning, the two suspects came to the boyfriend’s house and she got a lift home with them.
“My boyfriend and I were fine with them taking me home because we have all been friends for so long and we always hang out,” she said.
The two men decided to buy beers, which the woman said she shared with them but later asked go home because she was tired from the night before.
They went to the one suspect’s house where she again complained that she was tired and the one suspect offered her a room to sleep in.
He followed her into the room. The second suspect came in and locked the door behind him. Then they raped her.
“I just asked them to stop and leave me alone,” she said.
Eventually they decided to take her home and she asked to be dropped at her boyfriend’s house: “I knew if I went home, my family would scold me and ask where I was and I would’ve just washed and gone to sleep. But I went to my boyfriend because I trust him and had to tell someone.
Her father said it was “a blessing” that his daughter was still alive. “Normally when people know the victim, they kill the person so that the story never comes out. We are very grateful that she was not seriously harmed.”
She said: “I am shocked that they did this to me because they were friends… I feel ashamed and dirty.”
* Police spokesman Captain Frederick van Wyk said two men, both 24, appeared in the Grabouw Magistrate’s Court on Monday and on Tuesday. They were granted bail of R500 and their case was postponed till April 29.
Cape Times