Despite her recent ordeal, Yonela (not her real name) still manages a shy smile. She has just spent one week in the Knysna Provincial Hospital and was discharged with stitches after being raped by an unknown man near her home in Khayalethu on Monday morning, October 27, at around 10:00.
Since her release from hospital, the little girl has been moved to the home of another family member in White Location where her maternal grandmother who, devastated by the news of her grandchild's rape, travelled all the way from Fort Beaufort in the Eastern Cape, helps to take care of the little one.
Since she was preparing to go to workon that ill-fated morning, the five-year-old's carer reportedly sent her to her mum's house just a short distance away. She locked up and left with her own child.
"Only later did I get a call at work to say that they found Yonela back at my house, lying crying and alone in front of a locked door," explains the carer, who immediately contacted the girl's mother. Everyone rushed back to find the distressed child, who bore visible evidence that she had had a forced sexual encounter.
"She was in so much pain and crying," recalls her mother who spent every day with her daughter while she was recuperating in hospital.
Once the police were alerted, Yonela led the group of adults to show them exactly where the rape had taken place, in the forest behind a nearby home. Apparently the man had lured her with the promise of biscuits. He lifted her over a fence.
"We found three condoms at the site," says the mother. "Two were still in packets and one was ripped open, but had not been used. I don't know if this was the doing of the man who raped my child or not."
On Wednesday, October 29, community members alerted the police that they had apprehended a man they suspected to be guilty of the child's rape. The man had knocked on the door of the child's carer's home, trying to sell a braai stand. Noticing that his clothes fit the description the little girl had given them, The photographed him using their cellphones, but the man ran away. Once caught, he apparently kept saying, "It wasn't me! It wasn't me!"
This individual has since been released from police custody.
"I don't understand why he is out walking the streets again," remarks the mother. "I am not afraid of him. I want to know who raped my child. This man was wearing the exact same clothes my daughter said her rapist had been wearing. Several people had seen him in the vicinity that Monday morning when she had disappeared."
Provincial police communication liaison, Captain Bernadine Steyn, said that although the suspect apprehended by the community was taken into custody, no evidence could be found to link him to the crime. However, she indicated that another suspect has been linked to the rape and may shortly be arrested. Steyn confirmed that forensic samples were collected from both the victim and suspect and sent away for results.
The little girl is clearly part of a family of women who stand together as a united front against any adversary. Her grandmother says, "It is not easy when something like this happens to your family. We see things like this on television, but how do you handle it when it happens to you? This is so terrible. We are just grateful that he did not kill her."
* In the meantime another family have to deal with the fact that their girl child, nine-year-old Liyema Baleni has been missing for more than two months. The child disappeared without trace on Thursday afternoon, August 28. At 03:00 on September 11, the police raided the home of her father, Eugie Gwantshu. They confiscated the cellphones of the couple who rented a room in his house. Ali Mwinchumu and Alenika Geswindt were taken into police custody, but released soon after. No further feedback on the progress of this case has been received.
The mother of a five-year-old rape victim points to a bushy area behind this fence where her daughter was raped by an unknown adult male. After the ordeal, the little girl crawled underneath this wooden fence to limp back to her carer's home.
ARTICLE: ANOESCHKA VON MECK & BONISWA ZWAYENA
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