POLICE officers have been lambasted for repeatedly failing to arrest a rapist, despite his victim's extraordinary efforts to track him down.
The woman, a teacher in her 40s, went as far as arranging a meeting with her rapist, and when police did not turn up to arrest him, she had no choice but to have sex with him.
This was after he had previously raped her nine times during a three-hour ordeal.
The KwaZulu-Natal High Court in Pietermaritzburg last Thursday dismissed an appeal by her attacker, Makethe Abraham Nkwanyane, against his conviction and sentence on rape and robbery charges.
The court instead increased his 15-year prison sentence for rape to life behind bars.
Nkwanyane was found guilty of raping the woman in January 2009, when he found her hitchhiking near Pongola in KwaZulu-Natal. He also robbed her of her cellphone.
While police told the woman they could not find her rapist, Nkwanyane phoned her several times, threatening to kill her if she did not withdraw the charges.
Later, Nkwanyane changed tack and told the woman he loved her and asked her to visit him in Johannesburg.
She gave the police the directions he had given her, but again the police said they could not find him.
The woman then agreed to visit Nkwanyane, but the police said they could not accompany her.
Her plea, just as she was about to meet Nkwanyane, to have Johannesburg police arrest him, fell on deaf ears.
"Left with no choice she accompanied him and his friends to his residence. She was compelled by circumstance to submit to him. To her, this was rape," Judge Dhaya Pillay said.
The next day the woman gave the police the address and they promised to arrest him, but again failed to do so.
It was only after the principal of the school where she teaches and an assistance programme worker intervened that Nkwanyane was finally arrested.
"This case is as much an indictment against the appellant (Nkwanyane) as it is against the SAPS for remaining unresponsive to the complainant's numerous efforts to assist them to arrest the appellant," Pillay said.
"It is a double travesty of justice that she had to submit to her rapist again in order to have him arrested."
Pillay said the police ought to be investigated by the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid).
Ipid spokesman Moses Dlamini said the police watchdog would decide if the matter should be investigated.
But he said this was unlikely because Ipid no longer investigates claims of police misconduct, although it can investigate any matter on the orders of Ipid executive director Robert McBride.
Yesterday, KwaZulu-Natal police told Sowetan that they were still tracing the case to respond to queries.
newsdesk@sowetan.co.za
For more stories like this one, be sure to buy the Sowetan newspaper from Mondays to Fridays
Police fail victim of rape
POLICE officers have been lambasted for repeatedly failing to arrest a rapist, despite his victim's extraordinary efforts to track him down.
The woman, a teacher in her 40s, went as far as arranging a meeting with her rapist, and when police did not turn up to arrest him, she had no choice but to have sex with him.
This was after he had previously raped her nine times during a three-hour ordeal.
The KwaZulu-Natal High Court in Pietermaritzburg last Thursday dismissed an appeal by her attacker, Makethe Abraham Nkwanyane, against his conviction and sentence on rape and robbery charges.
The court instead increased his 15-year prison sentence for rape to life behind bars.
Nkwanyane was found guilty of raping the woman in January 2009, when he found her hitchhiking near Pongola in KwaZulu-Natal. He also robbed her of her cellphone.
While police told the woman they could not find her rapist, Nkwanyane phoned her several times, threatening to kill her if she did not withdraw the charges.
Later, Nkwanyane changed tack and told the woman he loved her and asked her to visit him in Johannesburg.
She gave the police the directions he had given her, but again the police said they could not find him.
The woman then agreed to visit Nkwanyane, but the police said they could not accompany her.
Her plea, just as she was about to meet Nkwanyane, to have Johannesburg police arrest him, fell on deaf ears.
"Left with no choice she accompanied him and his friends to his residence. She was compelled by circumstance to submit to him. To her, this was rape," Judge Dhaya Pillay said.
The next day the woman gave the police the address and they promised to arrest him, but again failed to do so.
It was only after the principal of the school where she teaches and an assistance programme worker intervened that Nkwanyane was finally arrested.
"This case is as much an indictment against the appellant (Nkwanyane) as it is against the SAPS for remaining unresponsive to the complainant's numerous efforts to assist them to arrest the appellant," Pillay said.
"It is a double travesty of justice that she had to submit to her rapist again in order to have him arrested."
Pillay said the police ought to be investigated by the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid).
Ipid spokesman Moses Dlamini said the police watchdog would decide if the matter should be investigated.
But he said this was unlikely because Ipid no longer investigates claims of police misconduct, although it can investigate any matter on the orders of Ipid executive director Robert McBride.
Yesterday, KwaZulu-Natal police told Sowetan that they were still tracing the case to respond to queries.
newsdesk@sowetan.co.za
For more stories like this one, be sure to buy the Sowetan newspaper from Mondays to Fridays
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