Teen rescued just in time after being forced to write suicide note during alleged rape ordeal

A man was arrested after he allegedly abducted a teenage girl and raped her for three days.

The 18-year-old, who was forced to write a suicide note, says she was rescued before she could be killed.

The victim from Khayelitsha was standing on Old Faure Road in Driftsand last Friday when the attacker put a knife to her ribs and forced her to go with him.

She was taken to Covid-19 informal settlement in Mfuleni where she was repeatedly assaulted.

The teen was in tears as she explained: “He told me about his HIV-positive status and said he was going to use condoms.

“Then he said I should undress and he began to rape me. The whole weekend he made me eat something that looks like impepho (herb used as incense) and I would sleep after that.

“When I woke up, he would rape me again.”

The 35-year-old suspect didn’t feed the girl for the three days.

He also threatened to kill her once he was done with her.

“On Monday, he told me he was going to kill me,” she says

“He gave me a page to write a suicide note and he already had a rope hanging from the roof of the shack.

“I wrote my name and address and told my family I loved them.”

The teen was rescued by a neighbour on Monday, the day she was supposed to die.

Community leader Bongile Zanazo says the victim’s friends went searching for her and managed to find a witness who knew the suspect.

“A woman showed them where the suspect lives, they knocked but he would not open,” he explains.

“Residents pushed the door open, the girl was naked when the people got there and she was given clothes.”

The people in the area destroyed the suspect’s shack, called the police and he was arrested.

He appeared in the Blue Downs Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday on a charge of rape.

SAPS’ Captain FC van Wyk says the case is being investigated by the Kuils River FCS.

Zanazo says the man is not welcome back in Covid 19.

“We can’t live with monsters in our community. Even if he gets bail, he is still not allowed back here,” he says.