Civil society groups in the Eastern Cape are expected to picket outside a King Williams Town court on Monday in support of a 23-year-old woman who was arrested last week. The woman was arrested for the murder of an alleged rapist.
She allegedly caught the man trying to rape her one-year-old niece inside the family kraal in Qaga village near King Williams Town.
It’s alleged that a scuffle ensued.
In the woman’s efforts to rescue the toddler, she hit the deceased with an iron rod.
Children’s Rights and Victim Empowerment Services head at the Khula Community Development Project, Petros Majola, has commended the woman for acting swiftly in rescuing the child and has called on the criminal justice system to be lenient with her.
“Everyone understands that this woman is not a murderer. We are aware of the constitutional rights, but at the same time, she has acted swiftly that she managed to rescue the child and I still fail to understand why she was detained from Thursday until the end of the weekend. We welcome everyone who has come on board. We have the Men’s Sector, we’ve got all rights groups coming in support of this woman and we are saying she must be released and the charges must be dropped,” says Majola.
Meanwhile, The rape of girls and women below the age of 25 has reached alarming levels in the Eastern Cape. The provincial crime statistics released recently saw more than seven thousand rape cases opened between April last year, and March this year.
Below is a video on stats showing increasing levels of rape in the Eastern Cape:
