Free State spokesperson, Motantsi Makhele, tells OFM News the suspect, who hails from Intabazwe and is known to the victim, followed the elderly woman home on Monday afternoon. Makhele says upon her arrival, just after 16:00 pm, the suspect allegedly grabbed the victim by the neck and raped her. The 70-year-old woman reported the incident and the suspect was arrested on Monday evening. He is facing a charge of rape.

Elsewhere in the province, a 36-year-old Northern Cape man stands accused of raping and murdering his own mother this past weekend. Police spokesperson, Mohale Ramatseba, reveals the suspect was allegedly caught in the act by a passer-by over this past weekend and alerted the police. It is alleged that the suspect and his mother were drinking wine together under a tree on the night of 2 February before he allegedly raped and killed her.

The vast majority of perpetrators of gender-based violence and sexual assault tend to be known to the victim. In fact, the Medical Research Council’s report titled “Rape Justice in South Africa”, reveals most of the rapes perpetrated by someone familiar to the women occurred in their places of residences.

In late 2019, OFM News reported that the South African Forensic Nursing Association (Safna) is of the view that forensic nurses must be placed at the centre of the government’s National Strategic Plan on Gender-based Violence and Femicide. Safna President, Priscilla Monyobo, believes that this is one way to help strengthen the implementation of the 10-year plan which was put together by the Gender-based Violence and Femicide Steering Committee founded in 2019, following the Presidential Summit into the scourge of violence against women and children in the country in 2018.

OFM News