Police urge all women to be very careful when they relax in others’ company. This after a woman’s drink was spiked and she was raped while partying with friends.
Kagiso Police spokesperson Captain Solomon Sibiya said since the country was moved to lockdown level one, more women had gone on drinking sprees. Some drink from sunrise to midnight and then unwittingly become a victim of rape by people they know very well – sometimes even their neighbours.
“Most people feel that they had been denied an opportunity to mingle and celebrate with whoever for whatever reason. In an attempt to catch up on lost time, they find themselves overdoing everything, taking excessive amounts of alcohol and eventually falling prey to perpetrators of rape and violence. Some become victims because their drinks got spiked,” Sibiya said.
He said women whose drinks had been spiked usually were unable to recall the circumstances in which they were raped, and this made it very difficult for police to intervene.
Sibiya explained that in one incident in Zulu Jump recently, a woman spent the night with two friends at the home of a man she had known and trusted for a long time.
Her friends later left but she stayed behind to continue drinking with the man. When she woke up on a couch at about 00:30 she was naked and realised she had been raped. She confronted the man who admitted that he had sex with her.
“She could not recall giving consent, although the man insisted that she did.”
Brigadier Themba Maduna, the Kagiso Police station commander said, “We wish to appeal and urge our women residents to take care of themselves and not trust anyone with their well-being or bodies.”
The 24-year-old man was arrested on October 13 and charged with rape. He has appeared in the Kagiso Magistrates’ Court.
