Africa-Press – South-Africa. ActionSA president Herman Mashaba said the gang rape of eight women in West Village, Krugersdorp, last month hit home after his wife’s aunt was raped and murdered in her home, allegedly by two individuals.
Mashaba said the 77-year-old woman lived alone in the North West.
North West police spokesperson Colonel Adele Myburgh confirmed the incident occurred on Sunday.
Myburgh said the woman’s body was only discovered in her house on Tuesday.
The first suspect was arrested on Tuesday and the second on Wednesday.
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According to Myburgh, one of the men appeared in the Moretele Magistrate’s Court on Thursday and the case was postponed to Wednesday.
The second man is expected to appear in court on Friday.
“Fortunately, they [suspects] have been arrested… [a] 77-year-old woman, living on her own, a God-loving human being, raped and murdered by two men in their 30s. At the same time, we say we have a government; what type of government do we have?” Mashaba said outside the Krugersdorp Magistrate’s Court on Thursday.
Mashaba joined scores of protesters from different political parties outside the court, where seven people appeared in connection with the gang rape of eight women in West Village last month.
The court heard that six were from Lesotho and Mozambique, while the seventh was from South Africa. They are aged between 23 and 48.
‘We are petrified,’ say residents of Krugersdorp village where 8 women were raped at music video shoot
The court also heard their addresses were unknown, and they were abandoning their bail applications.
On Wednesday, seven others appeared in court in connection with the case.
Fourteen men now stand accused of robbing and raping the women, who were part of a crew filming a music video at a mine dump.
Initially, all the accused only faced a charge of being in the country illegally, but they now also face multiple counts of rape, sexual assault, and robbery with aggravated circumstances.
The men were among more than 80 people arrested during raids launched after the incident.
Mashaba said he had written to Police Minister Bheki Cele and Gauteng police commissioner Lieutenant-General Elias Mawela on Tuesday to get the name of the production company.
“I’ve given them seven days to tell us the production [company] behind this because we [have] got difficult questions to ask. We want answers.”
Mashaba said he was “not happy” with the progress made in the case.
“The police have a constitutional obligation to apprehend and punish… I’m not happy because it looks like we are dealing with a bigger problem than simply a question of eight women who were humiliated.
“Their lives have been destroyed, so we must never celebrate what the police have done so far because they have not done us any favours,” he said.
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