Rape spirals out of control in Ikageng

In the last seven months alone, the Potchefstroom Herald and Midweek newspapers have reported on about 24 incidents of rape but the exact incidence in the township could be double or more as many go unreported.

In most cases, the young women were raped in the early morning after a night out at popular pubs in the township. Some were raped while walking through the bushes on their way home, while others were raped by people close to them.

Despite repeated warnings from the SAPS for teenage girls to be vigilant and not to walk home alone at night, not to trust strangers and to avoid walking alone around crime hotspots, this has not helped reduce the incidence.

More rape cases continued to stream in after last weekend. The Ikageng SAPS spokesperson, Const. Kelebogile Trom says a statutory rape case was opened after a 14-year-old girl in Sonderwater engaged in sexual intercourse with an older boy while visiting a friend.

“The girl alleges that she was drinking and smoking hubbly-bubbly at a friend’s house at about 01:00 last  Sunday. After a while, the friend left with her other friends, leaving the two behind, alone. “They started kissing each other; she took off her clothes and continued to have sex with the boy,” she said. In another incident, Trom says an 18-year-old girl from Ext. 7 alleges that she was at a tavern last Saturday when her boyfriend came and grabbed her by her clothing and dragged her outside the tavern.

“He pulled her into the bushes and started punching her with his fists; then he hit her all over her body with a hose pipe. He pulled her to the ground and started kicking her accusing her of cheating on him.

He tore her clothes off and raped her before instructing her to get dressed. Thereafter, they both went home,” Trom concluded.