Cape Town - It has been more than a year since a pre-school teacher was raped and robbed in a taxi.
Kelly*, whose identity is being withheld, was 23 at the time and travelled by taxi regularly between Eerste River and Bellville.
This week Kelly said she feels much better but is not happy with the way police handled the case.
“The last time I spoke to the police they told me there was not enough evidence because the taxi got burnt and they could not find the owner, and I don’t understand. I still have no closure,” she said.
When the incident happened she told the Weekend Argus that: “We were only three people in the taxi when the driver asked the guy where he was going as the taxi we were in was no longer going to Eerste River. The driver said the taxi needed water and that he was taking a quicker route home.”
Instead, Kelly and her colleague were driven to Kuils River, Mitchells Plain and Vangate Mall.
“We were separated in the taxi; my friend was forced to sit in front with the driver and I was in the back with the ’gaatjie’ [taxi fare collector]. They demanded our cellphones and jewellery and any cash we had. They also took my bank card,” she said.
They eventually stopped at Vangate Mall, where Kelly’s colleague was forced to accompany the driver to an ATM. This was when the gaatjie demanded that Kelly remove her pants. She refused and he pulled her by her hair, removed his pants as well as hers and raped her in the taxi.
She said she now works in a different pre-school in Kraaifontein and has to take two taxis, which is still terrifying.
“The incident is still on my mind and every time I get in a taxi I get scared, especially when I see dodgy characters aboard,” she said.
Kelly said the perpetrators were probably still doing the same thing to other vulnerable women because police could not do their jobs.
Police spokesperson Captain FC van Wyk said that more than a year since the incident, their detectives were “following up on all leads and working around the clock” in an effort to solve the case. “The investigation continues.”
* Not her real name
Weekend Argus