Two suspects were due to appear in court yesterday (Wednesday October 10) on charges of rape. Police spokesperson Captain Marius McCarthy said the charges were laid by a 24-year-old woman who alleged that she was raped in 2017. In her statement to the police, the young woman said her assailants had stabbed a girl with her, who was 13 years old at the time, and had dumped her body in a municipal drain.
Human remains (bones) recovered from the site of the alleged incident had been sent to the South African Police Service’s Forensic Science Laboratory for maternity tests, McCarthy said.
McCarthy said an inquest docket had been opened to investigate the origin of the bones and how they got there.
Meanwhile charges of fraud and child neglect have been opened against the mother of a child, McCarthy said.
The horrific allegations have outraged community members. Soon after they emerged last month, on Sunday September 22, hundreds of residents marched to the Nemato Police Station to demand the arrests of three men named in the charges.
On Sunday October 6, members of the eNdlovini community joined volunteer patrol group Port Alfred Crime Forum and local and regional leadership of the ANC and its partners at a candlelight memorial for Phelokazi Mtyambata, the 13-year-old child allegedly killed and dumped in a drain.
Speaking at Sunday’s event Carol Mdyambata-Nelson, spoke about her memories of her cousin, Phelokazi. Mdyambata-Nelson grew up in a different household from her cousin and was not a witness to the alleged incidents of 2017.
“I just remember a young, bubbly little girl,” Mtyambata-Nelson said. “She was sweet, a little angel.
“Today we’re here to appreciate that we have found her bones – to light a candle for her to show her she is not forgotten and that we heard her voice.”
[Editor’s note: the origin of the bones recovered last month has not yet been confirmed and is still the subject of a police inquest].
Speakers at the service included ANC sub region secretary Nomaxabiso Ngece, Ndlambe Council women’s caucus representative Siphokazi Dyakala, mayor Khulula Ncamiso, Petros Majola of the Khula Community Development Project, Thembani Mazana from SANCO, Vivian Maphaphu the former speaker of Ndlambe Council and local MK Party representative Wellington Majikwa.
MP and chairperson of the Sarah Baartman Region’s Women’s League Virginia Camealio-Benjamin was the keynote speaker. She emphasised the importance of the voices of victims of violence and their families being heard by the police and in the courts.
“It is not about us as as political party,” Camealio-Benjamin said. “It is about this community that has suffered so cruelly. I know it has been a long time, but at least now the [alleged] perpetrators will be in the court.
“Because we need closure for the family; we need closure for this poor young girl who has been out there all this time, and none of us knows how it went with her.
Camealio-Benjamin emphasised that it was important for MPLs, MPs, councilors and other politicians to support members of the community irrespective of their political affiliation.
“Without the community, we are nothing,” she said. “We are mere servants of the community and we must not forget that. We must serve them irrespective whether we go back to parliament or back to council: our communities are the backbone of our society.
“It is important for us to be among our people at all times to make sure that these issues get addressed.”
Members of the Port Alfred Crime Forum were joined in protest on Tuesday October 8 by Makhanda counterparts, Grahamstown Crime Watch, outside the Makhanda regional court, where one of the accused was to have appeared for a bail hearing.
- This article was first published in Talk of the Town, October 10, 2024. The newspaper serving the communities of Ndlambe and the Sunshine Coast, with a weekly wrap of Makhanda news, is available at stores from early on Thursdays.
