Boyfriend tells of kidnap rape survivor’s ordeal

THE trauma of a rape survivor was laid bare by a man who saw his girlfriend being kidnapped by the suspected Tembisa serial rapist.

Thabiso Moloi (not his real name) detailed his girlfriend’s debilitated mental state in the Joburg High Court yesterday, following her alleged rape in July 2014. (He and his girlfriend will not be named, to protect her identity.)

Joseph Rasempane Mahloma faces 22 counts of rape, 17 of kidnapping and two of sexual assault, among a host of other violence-related charges, for an alleged reign of terror in Tembisa from 2011 to 2014.

Moloi’s girlfriend testified on Monday that a man fitting Mahloma’s description raped her at gunpoint in open veld while she was on her period.

This was after Mahloma’s alleged accomplice had supposedly forced the rape survivor to perform oral sex on him.

The accomplice is unknown to investigators as the accused supposedly refused to name him, saying he was willing to take all the cases on himself, according to a source close to the proceedings.

Mahloma and an accomplice allegedly broke into Moloi’s home in 2014 while he was sleeping with his girlfriend, and stole cellphones and wrist watches. They allegedly kidnapped Moloi’s girlfriend and locked the distraught boyfriend in his home.

Asked by State prosecutor advocate Leisha Surendra how his girlfriend was now doing, Moloi said her emotional state was adversely affected.

“She is no longer free – she is always afraid. Every time she hears the door opening, she becomes jumpy,” a distressed-looking Moloi said.

Moloi had earlier told the court of the shock of being woken in the middle of the night by the alleged perpetrators, one with a gun and the other a knife. “While I was sleeping, I felt someone touching my feet. I woke up and saw someone pointing at me with a firearm.”

He added that he didn’t see the alleged criminals’ faces as they were covered with balaclavas. After taking their phones, Moloi said, the alleged assailants “kidnapped” his girlfriend and “told me to go back to sleep”.

Moloi said he had to force his way out of his room by squeezing out of his window, where he saw his girlfriend being brought back by good Samaritans.

The case continues this week.