“At that moment I just wanted to fight, the fear only came afterwards. I told myself I won’t let this man rape me.”
These were the words of a woman (33) who fell victim to an attack by two men on the field at the Secunda Stadium.
The woman, whose name is known to the Ridge Times, walked from her home in Sunsetpark towards the Secunda Mall on May 4 when a man with a knife grabbed her from behind.
The attack happened in daylight, with people walking around, oblivious to what was happening.
At around 11:30, the woman was nearing the taxi pickup point and the street leading from the delivery bay area at the back of the mall when the attack happened.
“A man came from behind, hugged me and pressed something sharp into my lower waist,” said the woman.
She said a second man came from nowhere and both instructed her ‘to go’.
She was led into the field behind the stadium where there was no soul in sight, grass nearly shoulder high and where no one would have seen her or heard her cries for help.
“Initially, I was scared. I did not know what they wanted to do,” said the woman.
The woman had her handbag with her, containing her purse, keys to her home, and a small pocket knife.
Thankfully, her phone was tucked into the back pocket of her jeans with a thick jacket covering it out of sight.
“One man said he only wants money. He took my bag, opened my purse and found my cards in it.”
She told the attacker she did not carry money on her and only her bank cards. She gave her pin codes to the attacker when instructed.
One of the attackers asked her where she stays when he saw her house keys in her bag.
“I had to lie and said in eMbalenhle. He threw the keys to the ground.”
She feared that if she had said Secunda, the attackers would have told her to show them where she resided.
She said one of the attackers took her knife out of her bag while the other attacker unzipped his trousers and began unbuckling her belt and undoing her denim button.
“The one asked what he was doing now because they only wanted money. The other one said ‘I am going to give her what she wants’.”
The woman tried to defend herself but fell to the ground. The attacker overpowered her, who then held the knife to her neck. She explained the attacker inflicted minor cuts on her chest with the knife.
“I don’t know what came over me but I just wanted to fight. I kicked him hard, and he stabbed me in my right thigh. He then stabbed my left thigh. The knife then got stuck in my thigh,” said the woman.
By what she described as the grace of God, that moment while they attacked the woman, the sounds of sirens echoed in the air.
The sirens were coming from the Lilian Ngoyi Centre. where they commemorated International Firefighters Day.
The sounds of the sirens alarmed the attackers, and they fled.
The knife was still in the woman’s leg. She tried to pull out but couldn’t. They stabbed her three times and she sustained several cuts and bruises.
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“My mind was blank. After a while, I realised I had my phone in my back pocket.”
She first called ER24 and then her boyfriend to tell him what had happened and for him to let her mother know.
The woman’s boyfriend phoned the police’s 017 624 2000 number. The police answered the phone, but they never came to the scene.
“The ambulance service came. Even paramedics phoned the police, but the police never arrived. The paramedic waited for the police because he didn’t want to disturb the crime scene,” said the woman.
Allegedly, more than 40 minutes went by waiting for the police. The ambulance service could not wait any longer and transported the injured woman to a hospital. According to the woman, police only saw her on May 6, at around 15.00.
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The woman said the police phoned late Sunday, and said she needs to go to the police station when she is healed and that she must go with ‘them’ (the police) around Secunda to search for ‘those people’.
“I don’t feel it is right for the police to say my daughter must drive around with them. Don’t they think what it will do to her? She is traumatised,” said the woman’s mother.
The woman does not think this was the first time her attackers struck in that area.
“They knew exactly where they were taking me. They were not looking around. They took me straight to the back of the stadium,” said the woman.
She cannot help but think there may be other victims. The woman’s mother thanked the paramedics for their fast response and for assisting her daughter.
“I have already lost a child. My son’s decomposed body was found in a field. For me, I felt no God, not another child, not in a field and at the hand of another man,” said the woman’s mother.
Colonel Harold Mashile, commander of Secunda Police, confirmed the victim’s boyfriend made a call to the police’s call centre by on the day of the attack.
“The call centre dispatched the call to us,” said Mashile.
He explained that since the woman’s boyfriend was not at the scene, they requested her contact number.
“When the victim’s number was called, a security guard answered her phone, who then relayed the story to the police.
“The call centre dispatched the call and during that time our Sector 1 police were attending to another crime scene,” said Mashile.
He said when police left that scene to attend to the scene where the woman was attacked they could not find the victim.
“Our police made an inquiry around the area but could not find anybody who could help with information on the victim,” said Mashile.
According to him, the victim’s ‘husband’ reported the matter at the police station on May 5.
“When the complaint was lodged, police went to interview the victim at the hospital and opened a case,” said Mashile.
He confirmed the police saw the victim on May 6. Responding to the request of the victim to help identify the suspects, Mashile said, “The officers asked the victim if she would be able to identify the suspects.
“She could not give a description but said if she saw them again, she would be able to identify them.”
The Colonel said they advised the victim that when she felt better to go with the investigating officer to see if she could point out the suspects.
“It does not compel the victim to do this, but it can assist the police with the investigation. Even if we arrest the suspects, the victim will still have to identify them,” said Mashile.
