A 17-year-old girl reported a rape case after she was allegedly raped at the music festival at the Ikageng stadium at about 23:00 on Saturday.
The 20-year-old suspect, who was arrested the following day, appeared in the Potchefstroom magistrates’ court on Wednesday.
The girl told the Ikageng police that she and her boyfriend went to the annual music festival on Saturday. The incident happened when her friend asked her to accompany her to the toilets.
Sgt Kelebogile Trom, the police spokesperson reports that a man she knows came up to her while she was waiting for her friend outside the toilets. He asked her to go somewhere with him.
‘She refused but he started pulling her towards the entrance where there were no lights. She saw two more men with him.
‘One hit her on the head with a bottle, causing her to pass out. When she gained consciousness after a while, she found her jeans, stockings and panties had been pulled down to her thighs. She got up and felt that she was sore. As she walked past the suspect and his two friends, he told her “they were done with her”,’ she reported.
By the time of print, the event organiser had still not commented on the alleged incident. He said he was ‘with the security who were conducting investigations’ and would ‘respond to u soonest’. A media inquiry was sent to him at 14:50 on Tuesday.
On Wednesday at 19:16, he finally responded. ‘We have been informed that the case has been withdrawn and as a result we have no comment on the matter,’ he told the Herald.
He could not comment on whether there were adequate security measures in place at the festival or if there was a 24-hour security patrol. Neither could he say how many security guards had been hired for the event.
There was also no response to the Herald’s questions about what the organisers would be doing to combat such incidents in the future and what support they are offering the victim at this stage.
https://www.citizen.co.za/potchefstroom-herald/27266/tiener-op-16-desember-by-die-trimpark-verkrag/
