PIENAAR – Residents of this area and surroundings are appealing for local cemeteries to be fenced due to the high incidents of rape.
Speaking to Mpumalanga News, one of the victims, who didn’t want her identity to be revealed but was known to this publication said, “I went out with my friends to a party, then around 21:30 I decided to go home because it was getting late.
“Along the way, I was approached by two guys in a white bakkie. They offered me a lift, but I refused. One of them got out of the car and started assaulting me. He forced me inside the bakkie.They took me to the cemetery where they raped me,” she explained.
She said she suspected that the perpetrators targeted innocent women because they were carrying a box of condoms.
”I think I was not the only woman they attacked because they were carrying a box of condoms in the car. Afterwards they dropped me off near Duma Primary School from where I managed to get home,” she explained.
The spokesperson for the local police,
Sgt Jabu Ndubane told this publication they had not been aware that thugs were now using those cemeteries to rape women, but stated that the only hot spot they knew about was the KaNyamazane Cemetery.
”We are not aware that such things are already happening there. We only know about KaNyamazane’s cemetery as most rape incidents took place there. We discovered that it was a hot spot for rape and our team had since started to patrol the area.
“We also realised that these criminals targeted working women who alight from buses late at night,” said Ndubane.
This reporter tried to get hold of the spokesperson for Mbombela Local Municipality (MLM), Mr Joseph Ngala to find out why the cemeteries were not fenced.
They are under the jurisdiction of MLM, but our efforts didn’t yield any results.
Meanwhile, during the men’s indaba recently held in Barberton, hosted by the office of the ANC chief whip at the legislature, men also raised serious concern about a group of youngsters who were sniffing glue and raping women at the local cemetery.
This publication also contacted the spokesperson for the police, Const Tutu Nkosi regarding this issue and she said,
“So far, no one has come forward and opened a case of rape that occurred at the cemetery, but we are going to pay more attention to this matter since it has been raised. We are going to do our best to arrest those people,” Nkosi concluded.
