MAPUTO – Twelve men have been arrested in connection with an armed robbery and the rape of one tourist. The attack took place on December 23 at Casa Lisa which is 48 kilometers north of Maputo.
Casa Lisa is a popular overnight spot for South African tourists travelling further up north.
A Mozambican official had confirmed the incident had occurred. She said the men were ex mine workers and therefore had been able to speak Afrikaans to the tourists when the robbery had taken place.
Media had reported that the men, some wielding machetes and sticks and others armed with AK47s and automatic guns, attacked the tourists .
Dean Hayward of Hillcrest and his family managed to escape.
“I woke up at 2:00 to people shouting and screaming, ‘Don’t hurt my family’.
Hayward said there were about 13 other people at the site, which has bungalows and accommodates campers and caravans.
“I got up and woke my family. We snuck out and got into our vehicle.
“The start of the engine obviously disturbed the gang, because the next thing we knew we were being shot at.”
Hayward said he sped off so quickly his trailer and boat dislodged from the bakkie.
With his wife and 11-year-old daughter safe in the bakkie Hayward said he drove for about 50km, until he came to a main road.
He flagged down a taxi and was escorted to a police station.
Two of the men in the meantime had taken a woman into the bushes and had taken turns raping her.
The woman and her husband were driven to Nelspruit where she was taken to Nelspruit Mediclinic.
The woman’s mother, from Johannesburg, had come to meet her at the hospital.
Eblockwatch have established a Mozambique crime watch network over the festive period between holiday towns on the coast.
Anyone interested can sms 082-561-1065 and join the support group.
