NO arrests have been made after a 13-year-old Zimbabwean girl was raped upon entering South Africa illegally, police said yesterday.
Report by The Citizen
South African police spokesman Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi told The Citizen that the girl’s wellbeing and recovery remained a priority, as no discussions regarding deportation had taken place.
He said that the girl had allegedly been raped while trying to cross the Beitbridge border between Zimbabwe and Limpopo.
“She had met with a member of a crime syndicate known as magumaguma, con artists who help smuggle people into the country, and was raped when she could not pay the man for the documents he had provided,” he said.
The Gauteng Provincial Legislature Portfolio Committee on Community Safety expressed outrage at the rape of the girl, as well as the rapes recently reported around the country.
Committee chairman Jacob Khawe urged communities to stand together and assist law enforcement agencies to “stop the unfolding spree of rape and murder against women in the country”.
“We believe that those who derive pleasure at abusing women and children must rot in jail,” he said.
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“Violence against women cannot be tolerated in our free and democratic society.
“It is a gross violation of their constitutional rights.” The committee plans to host gender-based violence workshops in March to intensify campaigns focused on curbing violence against women and children.
Meanwhile, Gauteng police have appealed to community members to protect children and women against all forms of abuse.
This follows the four life-term sentence handed to a man (52)who repeatedly raped a 13-year-old girl in 2009.
Lieutenant-Colonel Lungelo Dlamini said the accused had been sentenced in the Springs Regional Court last week.
“The rapist was among the accused who were convicted and sentenced to 48 life terms for raping young girls under the age of 17 years in Gauteng over the past three months,” Dlamini said.
