Taxi operators accused of raping and robbing girl, 14

TWO East London sedan taxi (iphela) operators have been arrested and charged with raping and robbing their passenger, a young girl of 14.

The driver, Zusakhe Tekwana, 30, and his brother Mihlali Tekwana, 27, told East London bail magistrate Joel Cesar yesterday that they intended to plead not guilty.

They were arrested in Mdantsane last week and yesterday Cesar denied their bail request.

The pair are accused of raping the Scenery Park teen and robbing her of R90 and her cellphone last Wednesday.

According to their charge sheet, the Tekwana brothers were identified through CCTV footage at a Duncan Village fuel garage moments before they allegedly raped the girl in thick bush near Wilsonia on June 2.

The charge sheet reveals that the two men took the girl to a secluded bushy area near the Wilsonia industrial area, where at knife-point, Mihlali demanded that she handed over her cellphone and money.

(Zusakhe) is accused of taking the knife from his brother and threatened to kill the girl if she refused to have sex with him. He raped her before leaving her in the bushes, it is alleged.

The charge sheet further states the girl went to a nearby factory where she was assisted by a security guard who later summoned police.

Police investigators tracked the vehicle in the CCTV footage to an address in Mdantsane, where the owner identified the driver and led police to where he stayed in a shack at Nondulo informal settlement at NU 1.

The two brothers will appear again in court on July 16.

● In an East London court last month police linked another iphela driver – who is in custody and accused of robbing and raping a Zwelitsha passenger in East London in November – to four other similar incidents through his DNA.

Some of the incidents linked to Siyabonga Sloti, 28, of Scenery Park, took place in the same bushy area in Wilsonia between 2015 and 2016, according to police.

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