Child relives her and friend’s rape ordeal
Victim of alleged serial rapist testifies about how helping a stranger turned into nightmare
HE SAT in court with a pained look on his face as his daughter explained how a serial rapist assaulted and raped her twice.
As Palesa* went into detail about the attack, her father stared ahead. Once in a while he glanced at alleged rapist Peter Dashboy Khosa.
Khosa is accused of being a serial rapist who targeted girls between the ages of six and 10. He is believed to have raped 29 girls during a rape spree that lasted several years.
The Eldorado Park girl remained composed throughout her testimony.
In 2012, when she was nine years old, she was playing in a park with her friend Ntombi* and other girls when Khosa allegedly approached them for help.
She said the 40-year-old man asked them to go with him to the neighbouring Slovo Park informal settlement to fetch his son, who was staying with a relative.
Although the man was a stranger, Palesa agreed to go with him.
“I like helping people, so I went with the man,” she said.
She said they never went to where he said his child was. Instead, Khosa took them on a long walk and into the bushes.
Palesa said they wanted to turn back but wondered if Khosa would kill them.
After a while, the girls came across a ditch in the bushes and Khosa allegedly jumped into it and ordered them to follow him.
He allegedly instructed the girls to undress.
“I didn’t want to, but looked into his eyes and saw that if I don’t do what he wants me to do he will harm me.”
Khosa allegedly rubbed ZamBuk on the girls’ genitals and and then raped Palesa.
“I begged him: ‘Please don’t do this’. Then he said: ‘Are you stupid or what?’.
While she was being raped, Palesa said, she struggled with Khosa, who bit her three times on the hand, attempted to strangle her, then pushed her aside when he was done with her.
He allegedly ordered Ntombi to also lie down and climbed on top of her. As she lay there, Ntombi gestured to Palesa to pick up a stone and hit Khosa. She refused. Palesa said Ntombi also put up a fight, taking Khosa’s knife that was lying on the ground and stabbing him. That angered him.
“He strangled her, bit her and spat at her. He also slapped her and pushed her against the wall (of the ditch).” Ntombi then bit him on the forehead.
After he was done with Ntombi, Khosa allegedly raped Palesa for the second time.
Palesa said that afterwards, Khosa tied up Ntombi. “He said we were going to leave her behind because she fights. I pleaded with him to release her.”
Palesa said Khosa told them to find their own way home.
The girls ran for help to the nearest house, which belonged to Wendy du Plessis.
Du Plessis said the children were tired and shivering. “The small one was bleeding from the nose and had a bite mark on the arm. You could see she had been fighting,” Du Plessis said. The trial continues. * Not their real names