Hammanskraal serial rapist victim speaks out

One of the victims of Johannes Nokeri – the serial rapist who was sentenced to a combined 191 years earlier this month – spoke to Rekord of her ordeal at his hands almost a decade ago.

Nokeri was sentenced on January 14 to five life terms for rape and other offences he committed around Temba and Hammanskraal between 2012 to 2017 when he was arrested.

He was found guilty on 18 counts of rape, 23 counts of robbery with aggravating circumstances, theft of a motor vehicle and unlawful possession of a firearm and ammunition.

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Tumi (not her real name) was raped by Nokeri on August 28, 2013.

She said she was on her way home with four other people when Nokeri approached them carrying a gun.

“He took out the gun and fired a shot. He ordered us to lie down on the ground, but I refused. He started hitting and kicking me and I fell down.

“He tore my clothes off and raped me. This hurt me so bad because I was pregnant at the time and I had a miscarriage after the incident,” she said.

“Nokeri was unknown to me at the time; he simply raped me and left. The next time I got to see him was in May 2018 when they told me I should come to court because he was arrested.”

This was, however, not the end of Tumi’s nightmare. That same month she would be raped again – this time by a suspected accomplice of Nokeri’s.

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“On May 25, 2018, at around noon while I was on my way back home from a local Shoprite, a car stopped in front of me and a man with a gun ordered me to get into the car.

Tumi was five months pregnant at the time.

“He took me to a veldt with graves in it in Bosplaas. The man told me to phone the investigating officer and tell him that I want to drop the case against Nokeri.

“We tried calling the investigating officer, but his phone was off. He then ordered me to take off my dress; I pretended that I didn’t hear him and then he began hitting me and he raped me.

“After he had raped me, I opened the car door and fled.”

The driver of an oncoming car saw what was happening and tried to shoot Tumi’s attacker. Her attacker, however, ran away, leaving his car behind.

A completely naked Tumi ran to a nearby house and discovered that it belonged to the man who tried to help her.

“They gave me clothes and called the police.”

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Her attacker’s abandoned car was found to have been stolen in Tembisa.

Later, Tumi said she was offered a Quantum minibus by a woman who had been asked by Nokeri to bribe her into dropping charges.

“The woman sent me a message on Facebook, pretending to be someone offering me a job. We met at our local KFC and she took out a photo of Nokeri and said that if I drop the charges, they will give me a Quantum.”

She said Nokeri made her life “a living hell”.

After the second rape, I had to be taken to hospital to give birth to my child, who is two years old now.

“The doctors told me it would be better if I gave birth prematurely because the child was swimming in blood.”

Tumi’s ordeal was not over yet.

“During his trial last year November, Nokeri represented himself and he belittled me in court.

“Out of all his victims, he chose to cross-examine me alone. He said he never raped a pregnant woman and he claimed the investigating officer paid me to say he raped me despite the DNA evidence.

“The people who came to court to support him swore at me and threatened to hit me. That same day also happened to be my birthday.”

Tumi said after she was raped, she felt like she was losing her mind and counselling did not help her.

“This case hurt me so much, I even lost one of my children to suicide. He was 10 at the time.

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“Some of the women he raped, lost their marriages and some of their relationships ended; others had miscarriages and others gave birth prematurely.”

She, however, said she was satisfied with the court outcome and was happy with the job investigating officer did.

Despite her ordeal, she encouraged other victims to come forward and report rapes.

“Do not sit down and say you don’t know your attacker. Go to the police station and report. If I hadn’t reported the incident, he would have gone on raping women and would never have been arrested.

“I think there are probably a lot of Noreki’s other victims who never came forward because they were too afraid.

“Forget the stigma. Some of his other victims were blamed by their partners for what happened to them and it destroyed their marriages. One of them told me that her husband even told her to quit the job she had at the time the incident happened.”

Tumi said she found it hard to be in a relationship after her nightmare experience.

“Sometimes it feels like all men are monsters.”

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