A motorist who watched a woman being raped by two men near Durban's beachfront has helped convict the rapists.
|||Durban - Watching a woman being raped by two men in a high density area was probably the last thing a motorist expected to see as he drove up to a traffic light near Durban’s beachfront one Sunday morning.
Instead of driving away, the Good samaritan, Exariste Matabela, tried to stop the suspects and as a result, was able to provide key testimony that on Monday resulted in an unusual double conviction.
Durban Regional Court magistrate Siphiwe Hlophe, discounting the evidence of the complainant who was drunk during the attack, used the strength of Matabela’s evidence to convict Bongani Ndlovu, 20, and Siphamandla Ngcobo, 48, of rape.
Despite Matabela’s testimony that he had not seen Ndlovu raping the woman, the court agreed with prosecutor Joel Kisten’s argument that he had acted in concert with his co-accused by facilitating the offence and should also be convicted.
Matabela, a key witness in the case, was driving along Somtseu and Sylvester Ntuli (Brickfield) roads, near the Durban ice rink, on January 22 last year when he came upon the attack. He testified that he had seen Ndlovu, Ngcobo and the woman “fighting” before the two men dragged her behind a bus shelter and raped her.
Ndlovu had held the woman’s legs apart while Ngcobo raped her.
Alerting other passers-by as he got out of his vehicle, Matabela tried to pull Ngcobo off the woman without success.
Ngcobo “did not come off the woman until he was finished”, Hlophe recalled Matabela’s testimony yesterday.
After the attack, Ngcobo ran away, but Matabela chased after him. He caught Ngcobo and took him back to the scene.
Hlophe found the versions provided by the accused, who had pleaded not guilty, to be contradictory.
Ngcobo had said he was sleeping on the roadside when he saw Ndlovu assault then rape the complainant.
He said he asked Ndlovu to stop before walking away and reporting the incident to a metro police officer patrolling the area.
He accompanied the officer to the scene where Ndlovu had pointed him out as his accomplice.
In his testimony, Ndlovu, represented by attorney Ashika Ramdularay, said he had seen Ngcobo running with a stick and when he followed to investigate, he was chased by a group of people and was pointed out by Ngcobo as his accomplice.
However, Hlophe said it was “strange” that out of a group of people, Ngcobo would choose to point out Ndlovu as his accomplice.
The court rejected their evidence and also ignored the evidence of the complainant, who had testified that she was returning from a party and was drunk at the time.
Eleven hours after the incident, when she was being examined by the doctor, it was recorded that she was still intoxicated, the court had heard.
In her version she said the men took turns raping her while one of them pinned her to the ground.
The complainant identified Ngcobo as her attacker when the police arrived.
The men are expected to be sentenced on July 15.
rizwana.umar@inl.co.za
Daily News