Durban - A 15 -year-old Merebank boy who went drinking with his older friend “for fun”, has spoken of his traumatic ordeal of allegedly being drugged by a group of men and sexually abused.
The Grade 8 pupil drank some vodka, neat, while sitting in an alleyway with his 17-year-old friend shortly before his nightmare began.
Now he and his family are struggling to bring the alleged perpetrators to book, despite his devastated mother saying there was evidence of her son’s horrific ordeal.
“We took him to the hospital where it was confirmed he had sustained internal injuries. He has been through such an ordeal, but there has been no progress in his case. To date there have been no arrests or feedback,” she told POST this week.
Names are being withheld to protect the child’s identity.
The boy said his recollection of what exactly had transpired was a bit hazy, because of the drugs he claimed were “stuffed” into his mouth.
He woke up the next morning, and after attempting to use the toilet, felt excruciating pain and saw his underwear was stained with blood, he said.
Still traumatised by the incident, he said he had been out with a female friend, consuming alcohol, when she was approached by a group of four men she appeared to know.
One of the men invited them to “chill” at a house, he said.
“I didn’t suspect anything as my friend seemed to know them.
“When we arrived at the house, it was empty and dirty, with tools scattered about.
“We told the men we could not go home immediately as we did not want our parents to know we drank alcohol.
“One of the men offered us each a tablet, saying it would make us sober. He told us to place it under the tongue.”
The youngster claims he started to feel drowsy after a few minutes.
“I felt very sleepy, but managed to stay awake. My friend decided to leave to see her boyfriend and told me to wait for her, as she would come back for me.
“A few minutes after she left, the men began closing the windows and locked the door. One of them grabbed me, holding me tightly; another shoved a handful of tablets into my mouth.”
The teenager said he did not recall what happened after that, or how he went home.
“I just remember calling for my grandmother to open the gate and then waking up the next morning.
“When I went to the toilet, all I could feel was pain.”
Suspecting something was wrong, he told his family, who rushed him to hospital.
“They inspected my body and took samples as well as my underwear for DNA testing. The doctor said I had many cuts and bruises internally.”
His 33-year-old mother confirmed this, telling POST they had gone to the police immediately to open a case.
However, she was shocked when told a few days later that a court prosecutor had declined to proceed with the matter.
Police spokesperson Colonel Thembeka Mbhele confirmed a case had been opened at Wentworth SAPS and transferred to the Brighton Beach Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit.
“The docket was sent to the senior public prosecutor for a decision and the prosecutor declined to prosecute,” she said.
The family is baffled and outraged.
The boy said while he had learnt his lesson about drinking, going out at night and associating with people he did not know, the men who had harmed him needed to be held accountable.
Rees Mann, founder of the non-profit organisation South African Male Survivors of Sexual Abuse, said that as the country commemorates the 16 Days of Activism relating to the abuse of women and children, the boy child was often forgotten.
“Most of the young boys never report it due to self-blame, embarrassment and fear.”
One in five adult males are victims in sexual offences, said Mann.
“This figure could be much higher, as a male is 10 times less likely to report a sexual violation than a woman. This could mean that South Africa could have the highest number of adult male victims in the world.”
Of the total rapes reported to SAPS, 10% of complainants are adult males, he said.
“These figures for the first time depict a picture of males being victims of rape, recognising that they too are victims.”
The National Prosecuting Authority had not commented at the time of publication.