Sinoxolo Mafevuka Sinoxolo Mafevuka
Siyavuya Mzantsi
POLICE say their informant in the Sinoxolo Mafevuka rape and murder case is recovering at Tygerberg Hospital after he was stabbed in the neck – allegedly by the teenager’s boyfriend, who is also a cousin of the two men charged with her killing.
Investigating officer Butiki Tshabalala took the stand for the third time yesterday, opposing bail for the two men.
He told the Khayelitsha Magistrate’s Court that he had met a lot of residents who did not want to been seen with the police because they were “scared of being assaulted by the accused’s family”.
He said the family of the two men, aged 28 and 22, had allegedly threatened to assault people who gave information to the police about the matter, adding that the investigating team had been forced to arrange meetings with witnesses in places where they would not be seen interacting with the police.
Mafevuka’s naked body was found in a communal toilet about 200m from her home at the SST block in Town Two, Khayelitsha, on March 2. Her lower back was facing the toilet door, while her face was under the toilet seat, with her clothes scattered in the toilet and some stuffed in a cistern.
“The family (of the accused) is very curious about who is giving the information to the police. That has made our job very difficult because people fear being seen with police. We are having to arrange meetings in places where we would not be seen by the family,” he said.
Tshabalala told the court he had visited the person who had been giving the information about the case and advised his family to open a case.
He said it would not be in the interest of the community at large to release the men on bail as their release would jeopardise the police’s investigation. Tshabalala said the accused’s family did not want to see progress made in the case.
“The accused are capable of committing such an offence. On a previous occasion they were involved in the same kinds of incident. They had a motive of committing such an incident out of jealousy because they had seen the victim with another man.
“This incident has caused an uproar throughout the country because of the manner in which it took place, where a young life was taken by people who were supposed to protect her,” he said.
The residents had made it clear they did not want the suspects in their community again as their shacks had been demolished following their arrest, Tshabalala told the court. He said their release on bail would lead the community to take the law into their own hands.
Meanwhile, defence attorney Thabo Nogemane objected to two petitions collected by civil rights movements Zero Tolerance and Progressive Youth Alliance in opposing bail. The State intended to submit the petitions, but magistrate Xolani Menyiwe said he would make a consideration on the matter at a later stage.
In their petition, a group of young girls from SST said: “From the 1st of March, 2016, it became a turning point for our lives on two grounds: firstly the culture of rape is prevalent and has no consequence; secondly we are victims of crime and all sorts of atrocities, and our parents are not equipped to deal with these issues. Hence there were no cases reported as we are raped and threatened.
“Sinoxolo’s case is different for two reasons: this tragedy has highlighted the underground rape culture in the eyes of even the international community… as a result we are planning to come up one by one. Secondly, the nature of the crime confirms that something needs to be done as we need to establish if we have a serial rapist in our neighbourhood.”
The bail hearing was postponed to May 16, with Tshabalala expected to be cross-examined.
siyavuya.mzantsi@inl.co.za