Zim immigrant afraid of reporting rape for fear of being deported

A Zimbabwean woman living in South Africa says she was raped by a customer last year on 16 June but she is afraid or reporting the crime.

"I wish this day could be erased forever because it brings back bad memories for me," the 30-year-old woman told Daily Sun.

"I was selling brooms at KwaNobuhle in Uitenhage when a man approached me. He said his wife was looking for brooms and mops. Then he asked me to go with him so that his wife could choose a broom she liked.

"We got into a jikeleza and he paid for me. He then took me to his shack. When we got to his shack his wife was not there.

"He insisted that I should wait for her. "Then he dragged me into his room and threatened to report me for being in the country illegally," she told the People's Paper.

"He raped me and said he'd kill me if I told anyone. "After he raped me, he bought all my five brooms for R60 each and took me to a jikeleza taxi.

"I could not report him to the cops because I will be arrested and sent back to Zimbabwe.

"But this day haunts me," she said.

Warrant officer Basil Seekoei said: "It is never too late to lay a charge. "We urge her to open a case and we will investigate it."