Two sisters were repeatedly raped at gunpoint during a two-hour ordeal while their elder sister was forced to watch.
|||Cape Town - Two sisters from Dunoon were repeatedly raped at gunpoint during a two-hour ordeal on Sunday morning while their elder sister was forced to watch.
When the Cape Argus visited their one-roomed shack, the younger sisters - aged 25 and 29 - were too traumatised to talk.
The oldest of the three sisters told the Cape Argus that two men in hoodies had barged into the house when the youngest sister came home from her shift at a fast food restaurant around 1am.
She and the middle sister were watching TV and heard the youngest unlock the security gate. She then called to her sisters to unlock the front door.
“When we asked her why she wasn’t using her key she went quiet. I opened the door and two guys were standing behind her. One of them had a gun pressed against her back.”
Both men had guns and had partially covered their faces with scarves.
“They made us sit on the bed, next to each other, and told us to strip to our underwear. It was horrible, we sat there terrified and shaking. One pointed a gun to my face and told me to stand aside and they each grabbed one of my sisters,” she said.
The men then raped the younger siblings, one on the floor and the other on the couch. “I looked on crying. They kept shouting, ‘shut up’ and ‘don’t make noise’. They never put their weapons down, not even during the rape.”
Afterwards the two men sat on the couch and watched TV. They then raped the younger sisters again.
“When they were done they asked for towels and cleaned themselves. They told my sisters to do the same,” said the oldest sister.
“They wiped the door handles on their way out and told us not to tell anyone or they would come back to kill us.
“They locked us inside and left. They took the towels with them.
“Life will never be the same again. My young sister hasn’t slept in the house since the incident; she can’t bear to be in here… everything is a reminder of what happened.”
Police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Andre Traut said police are investigating a charge of rape and no arrests have been made yet.
A group of women, who asked not be named, told the Cape Argus they lived in fear and could not walk around the area freely by day or night.
“Not that it stops them; they will break down your door if they have to. A lot of people die here and, as woman, we are powerless, we get robbed and raped.”
Another young woman told the Cape Argus that on Saturday evening her neighbour was dragged out of her shack by a man.
“We were woken up by a loud bang of someone kicking down a door around 10.30 pm. We heard her screaming and we saw a man dragging her out the door and they disappeared between the shacks. We were all too scared to do anything. No one has seen her since.”
Ward councillor Lubabalo Makeleni said incidents like these were a regular occurrence in Dunoon.
“Every other day something similar happens. From men raping their children to women getting attacked in their homes, it’s terrible what is happening here.”
Makeleni said most people were scared to report the incidents because they did not trust the police.
“Police are visible in the area but people are scared because perpetrators walk free soon after they are arrested. So they stay quiet or take the law into their own hands.”
Cape Argus