Woman tells how she met Facebook rape accused despite suspicions
Failing to act on her instincts had devastating consequences for a Motherwell mother, who was allegedly raped by a man she had been chatting to on social media.
Testifying in the Port Elizabeth High Court under crossexamination yesterday, the 33-year-old woman said after chatting to the man who called himself Phakamani for four months, she still did not know enough about him.
“I was curious to know more about him and I was going to ask him more about himself when we met,” the woman said.
She allegedly met Thembinkosi Ngcolomba, 33, via the Umfula Wothando (River of Love) Facebook page under an alias, and she did not do any background research into the man who claimed to be an international soccer star from Port Elizabeth.
On February 14 2018, just after 7am the woman said she received a call from Ngcolomba, posing as the fictitious Phakamani and wanting to meet her as he was in town on holiday.
The woman, although reluctant, agreed to meet Ngcolomba at specific spot in NU29, Motherwell, at about 9am.
“At the time I left home I said to myself something was going to happen, but went so that I could see,” she said.
The woman said while on her way she had been chatting to her then 16-year-old daughter, sending the location via WhatsApp.
“I was constantly sending my location to [my child] so that if anything did happen, there would be evidence for the police to follow up,” she said.
After arriving at the prearranged spot, a man claiming to be Phakamani’s uncle approached her and told her to follow him to the house where she was to meet the man she had been chatting to.
While walking towards NU13, the man allegedly took out a screwdriver and forced the woman into the nearby bushes where he instructed her to undress before raping her.
Asked by defence attorney Khaya Saziwa, for Ngcolomba, why, if she had suspicions, she had followed the man.
She said she did so because she did not know what he would have done if she had turned around.
After allegedly raping the woman and robbing her of her cellphone, Ngcolomba allegedly threated to kill her before instructing her to run away.
She fled and was helped by a passing motorist, who took her to the Motherwell police station.
She was taken to Dora Nginza Hospital for medical treatment.
That night, she loaded her WhatsApp number on to a relative ’ s cellphone.
According to the woman, within the next two days Ngcolomba started chatting to her sister, and a plan was hatched between the sisters and the police to nab him in a sting operation on February 17, which led to him being apprehended.
At the start of the trial, Ngcolomba pleaded not guilty to 12 counts of rape, nine of trafficking persons for the purpose of sexual exploitation and seven counts of robbery with aggravating circumstances.
The case continues.