Anna Majavu

Anna Majavu

A Cape Town prostitute has accused police of refusing to regi- ster her case after she was raped in her home.

Sonto Diko, 27, (not her real name) says she was raped Langa last Saturday night by an unknown man.

She alleges that two policemen stationed at Langa police station, however, refused to accept her case when they realised that she was a prostitute.

Her case was only registered after a senior police officer intervened. But, she says no action has so far been taken against the policemen.

Diko said she responded to a knock on her door and a man she did not know burst in and raped her.

She said she stabbed the man in the shoulder but he continued to rape her. H er neighbours came to her rescue after hearing her screams and the man ran away "dressed only in a T-shirt".

"I put the rapist's trousers and underpants in a plastic bag and kept them," Diko said.

The two policemen who responded to her call took her to the Vanguard Day Clinic.

"But then one of them said he remembered my face from the truck stop [where she operates].

"They said I didn't look like someone who had been raped."

She said when she confirmed that she was a prostitute the police said to her "haai suka (go away), there is nothing we can do for you".

Diko said she pointed out her rapist at the clinic where he was being treated for the stab wound, but he was not arrested.

She said the police then dropped her off at the Langa police station where she waited for several hours until Inspector Mziyanda Ngaka arrived and agreed to open a case of rape.

Ngaka said he did not know if any action would be taken against the two officers.

Langa police station spokesman Inspector Odwa Makupula said:"We help everybody, irrespective of whether it's a sex worker or not."

Vivienne Lalu of the Sex Worker Education and Advocacy Task Force said: "It appears that there is an entrenched belief within the SAPS that a sex worker cannot be raped."