The rape case involving a top union official arrested at the Cosatu congress in Gauteng this week took a dramatic turn when it emerged that the victim was in fact a prostitute who cried rape after the official failed to pay her for services she rendered.
The embarrassing tidbits were revealed by a cop who did not want to be identified because he is not allowed to talk the media.
The detective said the suspect, who is a secretary of a popular union known to Sunday World, told the investigating team that the victim was not the girlfriend of his friend as she claimed in her statement, but a hooker he failed to pay after he slept with her.
The union leader, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told the police that he received a call from one of his friends, known to Sunday World, asking if he could show him around after the congress had concluded for the day early this week.
The friend picked him up from the Gallagher Convention Centre in Midrand, where Cosatu’s 14th congress was being held, and they drove to Carlswald Perere, a restaurant and pub where they merrily imbibed fire waters.
The cop alleged that as they were drinking, they invited an associate to join them. The associate later left for home after drinking himself into stupor, leaving the unionist and his friend at the popular waterhole.
The unionist said his friend paid for his accommodation at Regal Hotel, where he crashed with the sex worker. He exchanged low body blows with prostitute, but refused to pay for her services, he told the investigating team.
“After that, she accused him of raping her and phoned the police who went to the conference and arrested him. We detained him at our police holding cells,” said the detective.
Gauteng police spokesperson Dimakatso Sello could neither confirm nor deny the unionist’s claims that the victim is a prostitute whom he refused to pay after enjoying her services.
“Unfortunately I cannot confirm that. The suspect appeared before the Randburg magistrate’s court on September 28 2022,” said Sello in a text before referring us for further comment to the National Prosecuting Authority South Gauteng spokesperson Phindi Mjonondwana, who was not available at the time of publishing.
The unionist’s version of events contradicts the victim’s. According to the victim, she spent a night with her boyfriend, known to Sunday World, at the Regal Hotel in Noordwyk, Midrand after returning from the trade union federation’s congress.
She alleged that when she woke up on Tuesday morning, her boyfriend was nowhere to be found. Instead, the union leader lay next to her.
“She discovered that the union leader had had sex with her without her consent,” said the police officer.
On realisation that she had been raped, the victim contacted close associates, who advised her to open a case of rape against the union official.
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