The village where women can’t afford to report rape

The nearest police station is 120km away

23 September 2019 - 07:09 By Nombulelo Damba-Hendrik and GroundUp
subscribe Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package.
Subscribe now
Women in this Eastern Cape village sometimes cannot afford to report a rape. And when they do, police may not investigate.
Women in this Eastern Cape village sometimes cannot afford to report a rape. And when they do, police may not investigate.
Image: GroundUp/Nombulelo Damba-Hendrik

Sihle* did not report an alleged attempted rape to police for three days because she could not afford to get to the nearest police station, 120km away. Hers is one of many rape cases allegedly left uninvestigated because of a shortage of police in the Eastern Cape district where she lives.

Nineteen-year-old Sihle told GroundUp that a 17-year-old boy from Uitkyk, Mhlanga village, had got into her house through a window.

She had screamed and her mother had grabbed the boy.

“I used a spray my father gave us when he went to Johannesburg for work. He cried, calling my mother to forgive him as she was beating him with pots. As I switched on the lights he escaped, but I saw his face,” said Sihle.

She said she called the nearest police station, at Lady Frere. The police promised to send a van, but didn't.

On the third day police told her to come to the station.

Residents of Uitkyk rely on one daily bus to Lady Frere, which leaves at 5.30am and comes back in the afternoon. The return fare is nearly R100.

Sihle said she borrowed R200 from a loan shark, which she had to repay with 50% interest.

“I asked my cousin to accompany me to the police station. I didn’t want to go alone,” said Sihle.

Mhlanga village has more than 600 houses and residents say crime is high due to lack of police. They say there was once a mobile police station, but it was taken away after three months.

Police spokesperson Namhla Mdleleni said the mobile police station had to move around Mhlanga. One mobile station serves more than six locations, with a population of 10,000 people.

Community leader Bongani Nkuzo said several rape cases did not get reported to police because the survivors did not have the money to get to the police station. He said women were not safe.

Nkuzo said the mobile police station had started well and police had patrolled the area. “But the number of police decreased from six to three, then to zero. You would go there and find no police,” he said.

Sihle was the second Uitkyk resident to report an “attack” by the 17-year-old.

Twenty-one-year-old Ayanelisa* said she had been raped by the boy.

Police had given her three reasons the boy could not be arrested: that he was under age, that there was no evidence that she had been raped because she had opened the door to him and that she had not sufficiently identified him.

Ayanelisa said in the early hours of April 22 she had been sleeping with her 15-year-old brother and 13-year-old sister. Her mother works as a domestic worker in Ugie and only comes home at the end of the month.

We screamed for help, but no one heard us
21-year -old alleged rape victim

She said they were woken up by a man shouting her name and threatening to break the windows if she did not come out.

“We screamed for help, but no-one heard us. That boy threatened to rape me and my younger sister. I didn’t know what to do. I was scared for her. I only thought of protecting her,” said Ayanelisa.

She said she and her brother agreed that she would go to the door and he would follow and run to get help from the neighbours. But when he knocked on the neighbour’s door she did not hear.

This is a village where many women are living alone, raising children while their husbands work in big cities. Some households are run by children.

Ayanelisa said the boy had threatened her with a knife and dragged her to an open field where he allegedly raped her. “I was hoping that my brother would come to rescue me but he did not.”

In the morning she went to the clinic with her neighbour. Police were called and given the doctor’s report, but did not take up the case. “I left the police station more confused and angry,” she said.

“I didn’t even get a case number. I only received it after two months when the second victim laid a charge of attempted rape and her brother called the station, asking why the boy was not arrested for raping me,” said Ayanelisa.

National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) regional spokesperson Luxolo Tyali confirmed that Ayanelisa’s alleged rapist had not been charged due to insufficient evidence.

Mdleleni said the mobile police station would return to Uitkyk and promised to look into allegations that police had been called by Sihle and had not arrived.

* Not their real names

This article was first published by GroundUp. 


subscribe Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package.
Subscribe now