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[WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT] Kimberly woman, raped and set alight, succumbs to injuries in hospital

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[WARNING: GRAPHIC – THE FOLLOWING STORY CONTAINS GRAPHIC DETAILS THAT MAY OFFEND SENSITIVE READERS]

A 34-year-old woman who was raped and doused with paraffin before she was set alight at Lethabo Park, in Roodepan near Kimberley has succumbed to her injuries at a local hospital. The woman was accosted by three men who took her to a nearby veld and raped her before they set her alight.

Women in the area of the Northern Cape say they are living in fear.

Tensions are simmering at the informal settlement following the brutal attack.

Eyewitnesses say she managed to extinguish the fire on her body and ran to the informal settlement to seek help.

“We don’t have electricity, we don’t have much here but for women that something could happen to a woman like that, it’s very sad. It’s breaking to think it could happen to my daughter,” says a resident.

“I didn’t even think it was a lady. When my child called me I was thinking it was a man because my child told me it was a man that was stabbed ‘you must come and help’, and then I ran home and I called my boyfriend to come there. When he came in, it was a lady, naked and burnt, and was raped by three men,” says another.

Residents say they have appealed to the local Sol Plaatje Municipality to have electricity and sanitation.
They have also called for police visibility in the area.

“It’s heartbreaking to come out and see what happened but it was terrifying. It was emotionally and mentally disturbing to me,” says resident Bryan Grond.

The manhunt for the three suspects continues.

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