SIYABONGA SITHOLE
More than 85 illegal miners and suspects of a gang rape of eight young women in West Village, Krugersdorp, last week appeared in the Krugersdorp Magistrate’s Court yesterday.
Some of the suspects are women, while 20 others others are said to be minors charged with contravention of the Immigration Act.
The suspects are also charged with contravention of the Immigration Act, with some of them yet to be linked to the rape of eight young women on Thursday while at West Village to shoot a music video.
The case was attended by a group of protesters from community organisations, interests groups, NGOs, faith-based organisations and political parties who demonstrated outside the court before.
Following a brief appearance at the court, the case was postponed to Wednesday when the suspects are expected to continue being tried for rape, theft and the possession of illegal firearms. The prosecution team asked for the postponement due to the high number of suspects who have to undergo an identification parade.
This comes after the suspects were arrested by the police, with 67 arrested on Friday and a further 17 arrested on Saturday in a joint operation.
Speaking during a media briefing on Monday, national Police Commissioner Fannie Masemola said the police would leave no stone unturned in linking the suspects to the crimes they had allegedly committed.
"To this end, let me take the opportunity to assure South Africans that the multi-disciplinary team of investigators assigned to the West Village incident of multiple rapes of young women will leave no stone unturned in ensuring that the suspects are ultimately linked to the crimes, so that they can face the full might of the law,“ the national commissioner told the media at the police headquarters in Pretoria.
ActionSA spokesperson Lerato Ngobeni called for the government to tighten its immigration laws due to the high number of crimes committed by illegal foreigners in the country.
"We want the government to act swiftly and be tougher against criminals, and more especially illegal criminals. Our leader Herman Mashaba has long been vocal about the issue of illegal immigrants. In 2016, he affirmed the stance of ActionSA when he was still the mayor of the City of Johannesburg.
“He was labelled xenophobic, but we are not xenophobic when we call for foreigners to be documented. We welcome the people of the world to come into this country, but they must be documented. We refuse to live in a country with porous borders, and when we take a stance we are labelled xenophobic. We are calling for the government to protect South Africans against the crimes committed by illegal immigrants, "Ngobeni said.
Azapo also called for the law to take its course and urged the police to do their jobs.
Kekeletso Khene of Azapo called on law enforcement agencies to intensify their fight against violent crimes. Khene said Azopo had been on the ground seeking answers from officials on the increase in violent crimes in Krugersdorp, which she said could only be solved by the deployment of the army to patrol the streets of Westrand as it had become a hot spot for illegal miners who brought terror to the the people.
"There is a war that is being waged against our people, and we have been trying to get the mayor to come help us solve the crime problem in this area, which is very violent. Our people are dying and these people are heavily armed, making it impossible for the police to solve crime in the area, and it is in the interests of all citizens for the government to deploy the SANDF to help root out violent crime in this area,“ Khene said.
The leader of the Operation Dudula Movement, Dan Radebe, said the movement would continue to fight for illegal foreigners to be removed.
“Our stance as Operation Dudula Movement is simple. The question to ask is, how many more of our people will have to die at the hands of illegal foreigners before the government realises that the country is under siege," he said.
“From now on, we will intensify our fight against illegal foreigners who rape and kill our people. If laws needs to be changed to do that, we will do that," Radebe said.
Police Minister Bheki Cele said he had asked the forensic laboratory science lab to fast-track the DNA testing of the suspects.