Woman fights for life after attack
Teen raped, hacked with pangas by three men in Bityi area
AYOUNG Eastern Cape woman is fighting for her life in hospital after she was allegedly raped – and hacked – by her attackers who left her for dead at a rural village near Mthatha on Saturday night.
Mthatha police spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Mzukisi Fatyela said the 19-year-old was hacked with pangas and her body dumped on a field in Xhwili village in the Bityi area near Mthatha.
Three suspects, aged between 20 and 25 were arrested a few hours later. “They [suspects] thought that she was dead and dumped the body in an open field,” Fatyela said yesterday. “Police who had gone to the scene managed to nab three men in connection with the attack.”
The spokesman was, however, unable to say how the victim had met up with her alleged brutal attackers – or if they were known to the victim.
He was also unable to say who had found the injured victim on the field or who had alerted the police.
But he described the condition of the victim as critical. Fatyela said the three suspects would appear in the Bityi Periodical Court today.
“At the moment the police are trying to link them to other cases that have been reported in the area in the past,” he said yesterday.
Eastern Cape social development MEC Nancy Sihlwayi yesterday said only harsh sentences for perpetrators of these acts could help curb escalating incidences of violence against women and children. “As a society, we must continue to show our disgust. The criminal justice [on the other hand], when it finds culprits, it must put up examples.
“That is the only way people will learn that when you start to hurt a woman and when you hurt a child, there will be harsh consequences,” Sihlwayi said.
King Sabata Dalindyebo (KSD) municipal bosses also expressed anger at the latest attack, saying it painted the municipal area in a bad light, a move which could also drive away investors.
“The executive mayor [Dumani Zozo] would like to appreciate the quick action of the police in apprehending the suspects.
“The municipality condemns these acts in the strongest possible terms because we want KSD to be a crime-free zone so that even potential investors will want to come here and invest,” spokesman Sonwabo Mampoza said.
The incident comes at a time when the province is still reeling from several shocking crimes against women and children since the start of the year, including last week’s killing of two elderly Ngcobo women over witchcraft claims.
Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini who visited Lusikisiki late last month as part of Child Abuse Week described 2017 as a problematic year due to the high number of reported cases of women and child abuse.
She said they were an indication of the society’s lack of moral fibre while promising to sustain antiviolence campaigns. —