Lone war against rape

"Caution: Rape hot spot."

This is the wording on a warning sign erected in Edenvale, on the East Rand, after three women were raped in a veld earlier this month.

The sign was put up by the fiancé of one of the victims.

Motorists who drove past a nearby intersection yesterday were surprised to see the sign.

The man, who cannot be named to protect his fiancée's identity, said he intended putting up similar signs, which cost R2500 each, at every "rape hot spot" he was made aware of in Gauteng.

"You hear about rape all the time but no one really does anything until it hits home. The time is now for people to do something about it before it happens.

"But I'm very proud of [my fiancée] and how hard she fought the attackers. We heard that the previous victims were gruesomely attacked," he said.

The couple heard of the two other attacks when they went to report the rape to the police.

On arrival at the local police station, they were told the woman's attack was the third at that particular veld this month alone.

The man' s fiancée said it was not the first time that she had walked through the veld at night and had regarded it to be "fairly safe".

The two men who grabbed and raped her are believed to be vagrants living in the area.

The couple have taken their awareness campaign to social networks and vow to make "enough noise" to prevent any future attacks.

And they are not alone.

Another resident, who did not want to be named, chopped down nine trees with a chainsaw on Saturday before setting fire to the grass to clear the veld.

Rape Crisis Centre director Kathleen Dey called the warning signs "creative".

She said people who avenged their loved ones' rapes usually did so by taking the law into their own hands.

"Non-violent initiatives such as these make stronger statements than violence and I wish he could do this for the rest of the country's private and public spaces that are hot spots," she said.

• Should you know of any rape hot spots please, contact The Times on tellus@thetimes.co.za