Cape Town – Action will be taken against the cop who turned away a rape victim at the Khayelitsha police station on Monday night.
The male officer allegedly told Zikhona Rhuga, 26, to go home, not to bath and return the next day.
“I am happy to hear that there will be action taken against the officer because I felt like I suffered a second rape when he turned me away like that,” Zikhona says.
Zikhona, who asked to be identified, told the Daily Voice she had been raped by a taxi driver while on her way to her boyfriend.
The young woman says she was alone in the minibus taxi and after the driver raped her, he dumped her in an unknown street.
A man, who noticed her distress, offered to take her to the police station.
But at the cop shop, due to social distancing, she was asked to “shout out” about her ordeal in front of other people.
The terrified young woman was helped by resident Nana Samela, who says she was left disgusted when the cop told Zikhona she could only be assisted the next day, and warned her not to bath as this could destroy DNA evidence.
“I was prepared to live and let all this go,” Zikhona says. “I was going to try and heal myself because the police failed me.”
But an angry Nana took to social media and says at 4am, cops showed up at her house and took Zikhona to the police station to lay a charge.
Western Cape police commissioner Lieutenant-General Yolisa Matakata says she has learnt “with horror” of the incident and has called for a disciplinary investigation.
“The police officer in question has been identified as part of the unfolding investigation.
“Not only is it embarrassing to know that a victim of a crime left a police station without being helped. The allegations smack of dereliction of duty on the part of the police.”
Officers at the station told the Daily Voice that the conduct of the cop was not surprising as he often “turned people away without assisting them”.
A traumatised Zikhona says she is now scared to of taxis: “When I see a taxi my heart starts racing. It is like the driver will come to finish me off.”