‘I can identify the cops who raped me’

A STUDENT who was allegedly raped by police officers during a violent protest at the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Pietermaritzburg campus says she can identify her attackers.

The 22-year-old second-year student, who cannot be named because of the nature of the crime, said two police officers abducted and bundled her and two other female students into their marked police minibus vehicle.

This was during the protest against fee increases for next year.

The other two women managed to escape.

The student said she was raped not far from the gates of the campus.

“I am completely positive that I can identify the suspects because they didn’t cover their face while raping me. I was raped by two police officers wearing full police uniforms.

“The first one who raped me was dark in complexion, tall in height and has scar below the right eye.

“The second one was wearing a police cap, light in complexion, short and has quite big lips,” she said.

The student was discharged from Northdale Hospital in Pietermaritzburg on Wednesday afternoon after she was admitted on Monday night.

She said she had never seen her attackers before, but she would be able to pick them out.

“I tried screaming, but [that] couldn't help because they closed my mouth with a police cap. After the incident they left me there and I walked about 500m to the campus gate where I phoned my friends to come and fetch me,” she said.

She said the officers threatened to kill her if she told anyone about the incident.

“When they took us we thought they were arresting us for protesting. In the police minibus they told us that they wanted to have sex with us.

“My other fellow students who were sitting in the first front row managed to escape when the taxi stopped, but I couldn’t escape as I was shoved into the back of the minibus.”

On Wednesday morning, hundreds of students marched to the Alexandra police station in Pietermaritzburg where they handed over their memorandum of grievances after the officers allegedly raped the student.

Captain Khosi Khonjelwa said no arrests had been made and a case of sexual harassment had been opened.

Police are investigating.