‘Police failed me after mom’s boyfriend raped me’

A frustrated Gauteng mother is seeking justice for her daughter who was allegedly raped, but police appear to have botched the investigation.

After telling the victim the case had been closed due to a lack of evidence, police told the Sunday Times the case was still open. They said they had been unable to track down the suspect, who was believed to be hiding out in the Western Cape.

But it took one call from the Sunday Times to track him down. He said he was at home, working as usual and that he had never been contacted by the police.

He denied raping the 19-year-old girl, the daughter of a woman he was dating at the time, claiming he and the teen were having a “secret affair”. The man, aged 37, is married.

The alleged rape happened in June last year at a guesthouse in Durban. The teen had accompanied the man, who moonlights as a travel agent, to apparently make bookings on behalf of a Gauteng school.

The 19-year-old who lives in Limpopo was visiting her mother in Gauteng when she was allegedly lured into going to Durban with her mother’s boyfriend.

She told the Sunday Times she barely knew him, but the trip was made out to be a job opportunity for her.

“When we got to a guesthouse, he said there was only one room left and we would have to share.”

She claimed he tried to get into a shower with her, saying “what happens in Durban should remain in Durban”.

“I refused to take a shower. However, on our return from making bookings, he insisted I have an alcoholic drink which he brought.”

After a few sips, she felt tired and weak, she said. “He then forced himself on me as I couldn’t stop him, he overpowered me.”

The following day she pretended everything was fine until she saw two female police officers and ran to them.

“He disappeared as the cops took me to a police station and later the Addington Hospital, where I spent the night.”

A rape kit was done, and police gave her bus fare to get home.

The suspect, however, told the Sunday Times he was dating the girl. “We were hiding our affair from her mother as I was also dating her for two years,” he said.

He claims the girl asked for R10,000 to buy an 18-inch weave.

“We only started fighting when I told her I don’t have the R10,000 and I could only give her R5,000,” he said

He said dating his girlfriend’s daughter was “stupid” and claimed going to Durban was a plan they conjured up together.

They told me that they had made arrangements for him to hand himself over ... I suspect they were bribed.

—  Mother

He also alleged the girl had demanded R50,000 to drop the case, but failed to provide evidence.

“What we did was stupid, but I did not rape her,” he said.

The girl’s mother said two KwaZulu-Natal police officers came to Gauteng in December to arrest the man, but went back without him.

“They told me that they had made arrangements for him to hand himself over ... I suspect they were bribed,” the mother said.

Several weeks later, the girl received a text message from SAPS that the Sunday Times has seen, alerting her that the case had been withdrawn “due to a lack of evidence”.

However, police this week claimed the case was still under investigation.

“I met those two cops who told me that they had made arrangements with his lawyer and wife to bring him over,” the mother said.

“I went to Pretoria Central to verify if the case has been withdrawn, and they confirmed it,” the mother said.

KwaZulu-Natal police spokesperson Col Robert Netshiunda said: “Police in Sydenham were investigating a case of rape ... A 19-year-old woman was allegedly raped by a suspect known to her.”

He said police “searched for the suspect at various addresses to no avail”.

“We have received information that the suspect could be hiding in the Western Cape province. Police are still following leads, and it is just a matter of time before police find him.”

Netshiunda was subsequently sent a request to clarify, but he had not done so by the time of publication.

It is, however, not clear if the case was withdrawn after the message that stated it was.