NEWS FEATURE | She thought her rapist would never be caught. Then she met sergeant Dlokolo

For Cape Town resident Nomsa*, Women’s Month would become the month before she was raped by a man who promised to protect her from criminals.

On September 23 2018, the 23-year-old job seeker was returning home after dropping off her resume at a friend’s home near Lansdowne.

It was late afternoon when she left her friend’s home and, while walking, she soon realised she was being followed by someone who looked the part of a “skollie”, a criminal roaming the streets looking for a vulnerable person to be his next victim.

I cannot forget the gun that he was toting. I thought he would kill me and dump my body.

She feared she was going to be robbed but then a private security company vehicle pulled up beside her.

The armed security officer driving the vehicle, 31-year-old Xola Nyama, invited Nomsa into the vehicle and asked her where she was going.

She told him she was walking to get a taxi to go home and Nyama offered to take her to an area close to her home where she could get a taxi.

While they were driving, Nyama said he first had to attend a call-out at a church where an alarm had been triggered.

After attending to the call-out, Nyama drove with Nomsa to another home where an alarm was triggered in the Ottery area.

He then told her he would take her home but instead drove to a parking lot in an office park often used by private security guards when they were off duty to get some rest and respite during their shifts.

Nyama then raped Nomsa at gunpoint.

“I cannot forget the gun that he was toting. I thought he would kill me and dump my body,” said Nomsa in her victim impact statement, which would later be used in strengthening the state’s request for the court to impose a hefty sentence against Nyama.

After the incident, as though nothing had happened, Nyama drove Nomsa to an area where he asked her to get out of his vehicle.

After he left, Nomsa got help from a passing taxi. There was no-one to witness her being dropped off, and she did not get the number plates for the vehicle. Not only had her life just been irrevocably upended but she had no hope that she would ever get justice.

Sgt Dlokolo was appointed to the matter and she did an excellent job in her investigations.

Shattered, Nomsa went home where she called her boyfriend and asked him to please come. She told him what had happened and the couple went to report the matter to the police, not daring to hope the perpetrator would be caught.

But here she met her secret weapon. Nyanga police family violence, child protection and sexual offences unit officer sgt Andiswa Dlokolo was appointed to investigate the matter and, according to sexual offences prosecutor Jarrod Seethal, she was the women for the job.

“Sgt Dlokolo was appointed to the matter and she did an excellent job in her investigations,” said Seethal.

He said Dlokolo identified Nyama as the driver of the vehicle in the areas where Nomsa said he took her on the date and time she was raped.

“I was able to use the vehicle’s GPS tracking data to corroborate the victim’s version and to refute his version,” he said.

Nyama had denied doing anything to harm Nomsa and claimed he just offered her a lift and took her to the taxi stop. For this he was fired from his job before the trial started.

He claimed not to know why Nomsa was implicating him in the rape.

But he could not explain why he spent 13 minutes at that secluded car park alone with Nomsa.

On May 7 the Wynberg magistrate’s court found Nyama guilty of rape and sexual assault after it wholly agreed with Nomsa’s version of events.

But the court decided not to find Nyama guilty on a count of anal penetration as a separate count of rape, an issue the state intends taking on appeal.

On June 24 Nomsa finally received justice when Nyama was sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment. But her ordeal is not over. The scars remain etched into her mind, as seen in her victim impact statement:.

“The incident completely changed my life. I am no longer the same person I used to be.  After the incident, I prayed to God to help me forget about my encounter. I was very angry and wanted the process to be sped up; I wanted the perpetrator arrested and sentenced immediately.”

“I became very panicky. I get frightened if a person pops up unannounced. The feeling is difficult to explain. The situation is so bad that I get terrified of a person I am sitting with in a room, even if I am familiar with the person.”

“The anger I have is overwhelming. It is triggered by insignificant things. Before the incident, I was a sweet person who loved people. Now I easily get into fights with my friends and strangers when they say anything I do not like, even if they are joking.”

“I feel that people think I am stupid or a coward. 

“I no longer like spending time with my family. I avoid them because I do not want to be pitied. I do not want to be a burden to anyone, so I isolate myself.

“The incident really hurt me. I want to forget about it but it is hard. Even when I am with my boyfriend, the image of the perpetrator and the incident play back in my mind.

I developed ulcers. The doctor said they are synonymous with painful encounters. Sometimes I get chest pains and feel as if I had been crying.

“I almost committed suicide last year. I drank all my pills but regretted it afterwards and rushed to the clinic. My mood completely changes when I think about my ordeal. I prayed to God asking that the perpetrator be sentenced to life in prison and die a painful death so that he can also feel the pain he caused. I begged him not to do it but he continued.

“Thanks to God, I did not incur any costs except for when I went for counselling and when I went to the clinic for my ulcers treatment.” 

Her case was one of the 70% of successful rape convictions that the specialised sexual offences prosecutors stationed at their district office at the Wynberg magistrate’s court aim for.

Gender-based violence, femicide and violence against children have become buzz words to try to describe a brutal pandemic.

But the plight of the victims has not gone unnoticed.

The National Prosecuting Authority, the police, non-state interest groups and various government departments have managed to build a system which is starting to yield results in successfully treating victims and achieving prosecutions, at least in some places in SA.

“As a society who prides itself on its constitutional values and the spirit of Ubuntu, we must collectively engage in a reasoned and honest discussion about the state of our nation as is reflected in the harrowing tales of countless survivors,” Seethal told Sunday Times Daily.

“This war cannot be fought from afar, relying solely on the shoulders of a few brave men and women. We must all take a stand united in the pursuit of a just, fair and equitable society,” he said. 

This is part one of a three-part series on gender-based violence and the inspirational stories of the police and prosecutors working the cases behind the scenes.