A 19-year-old girl cheated death after she was kidnapped, chained, and gang-raped repeatedly by a group of men three years ago.
This week, one of her tormentors was condemned to life behind bars by the Butterworth regional court for his role in the incident.
Sandile Somdaka, a 55-year-old taxi driver, also received three years for kidnapping and 12 months for assault. The sentences will run concurrently with his life sentence.
He refused to give up the names of the other suspects, who still at large.
Luxolo Tyali, National Prosecuting Authority regional spokesperson, said the 19-year-old girl was hitchhiking on the morning of May 17 2019 from Butterworth to her village of Mngomanzi when she was kidnaped.
“A vehicle driven by Somdaka stopped and blocked her from the view of passers-by before one of the occupants covered her with a cloth to make her feel dizzy,” said Tyali.
“When she regained consciousness, she was naked and chained to a steel bed. She was repeatedly raped by a group of men for three days, after which Somdaka instructed [the other men] that she be taken to a forest where she was to be shot dead.”
Still naked and at the back of a bakkie, the girl managed to escape and found refuge where the men, who were giving chase, could not detect her.
“When her rescuers took her to the police station, they found the rapists’ bakkie parked near the Msobomvu police station. They then took her to Butterworth police station [to press charges].
Added Tyali: “She managed to take the investigators to a homestead in Mission Location where she had been kept captive. It was established that the homestead belongs to Somdaka, who was subsequently arrested at the taxi rank.”
Somdaka had told the court that he was in a romantic relationship with the victim, but contradicted himself under cross-examination.
Tyali said magistrate Veliswa Sityata agreed that gender-based violence is rife, and invited the harshest sentence of life imprisonment.
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