Police Minister Senzo Mchunu said a number of rural areas in the Eastern Cape were suffering at the hands of criminals. Picture: Jacques Naude/Independent Newspapers
An 18-year-old has been taken in for questioning in connection with the shocking attack on five Grade 12 learners who were raped at a rented home in Mqhekezweni village in the Bityi Administrative area near Mthatha.
The police investigation will also look into whether the teenager was involved in the murder of the 71-year-old matriarch Nogcinile Mtirara and another woman aged 80.
The incidents occurred on Tuesday night, with the body of the 80-year-old found on Wednesday.
“The investigation will determine whether he will be charged or released,” police spokesperson Siphokazi Mawisa said.
Parliament’s Select Committee on Education, Sciences, and Creative Industries welcomed the report that the police had identified a person of interest.
Committee chairperson Makhi Feni said: “It is appalling that such cowardice and despicable actions are committed against our children, and there is not much we could do. The Eastern Cape Department of Education should urgently identify the needs and support required by these learners.
“We have noted these despicable acts of criminality affecting schools in the rural Mthatha. We are concerned with the frequency and the profile of the perpetrators of these brutal acts against women and female learners.
The common denominator about these abominable actions is that the people who commit them have been to prison or are in conflict with the law in one way or the other,” said Feni.
Sonke Gender Justice’s community education and mobilisation provincial manager Patrick Godana said they were appalled by the high levels of violence in the Eastern Cape.
“Gender-based violence should be a concern for every citizen especially men and boys who are often alleged to be perpetrators. We learn that these girls defied this brutal act and went on to write their IsiXhosa exams. It certainly would not have been easy for them to do this. We salute their spirit of defiance to take control of their lives despite this massive challenge,” said Godana.
Police Minister Senzo Mchunu said a number of rural areas in the Eastern Cape were suffering at the hands of criminals.
“We recently dealt with the Lusikisiki mass murders but it also came as there had already been a number of murders in that area.
“Then it was Qumbu which was relatively quiet for some years in terms of murders, the main challenge was mainly stock theft. In some of these matters there are relatives turning against each other,” said Mchunu.
Meanwhile, cellphone records are what allegedly linked Mzukisi Ndamase, the man believed to have orchestrated the murder of 18 Lusikisiki people while he was in prison, to the murders.
According to NPA regional spokesperson Luxolo Tyali, Ndamase was arrested in 2007 and has been serving a life sentence for murder and robbery.
The 46-year-old was incarcerated in Mthatha, then moved to East London and a few weeks ago sent to the maximum Ebongweni Correctional Centre in Kokstad, which is dubbed South Africa's most secure prison.
He made his first appearance at the Lusikisiki Magistrate's Court on Thursday.
Cape Times
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