Man watched lover being raped

A WOMAN was gang-raped by two men while her boyfriend watched in a crime-hit Bulawayo suburb, a court heard.

The victim, 24, was later forced to have sex with her boyfriend as her two rapists and two other men who had just robbed them looked on.

Yesterday, Njabulo Mlalazi, 42, appeared at the West Commonage Magistrates' Courts charged over the sickening sex attack on September 18.

Three other men involved in the robbery and sexual assault are on the run.

The two victims, the court heard, were sitting in a car parked outside the woman's home in Cowdray Park when the knife-wielding gang approached.

At knifepoint, said Mufaro Mageza prosecuting, the two lovers were forced to hand over their phones - a Nokia Asha and a Samsung.

"The gang used large okapi knives to force the couple to march to a bushy area near Ngozi Mine (Richmond rubbish dump). The boyfriend's hands and feet were tied using his shoe laces. Mlalazi and one of the accused led the victim a few metres away where they used a knife handle to hit her on the head," said Mageza.

"The two raped the victim and then forced the boyfriend to have sexual intercourse with her."

The two terrified lovers were later released and walked straight to a police post in Cowdray Park - notorious for night crime - where they told police of their ordeal at the hands of the gang.

Mlalazi and his gang had made a clean escape, the court heard, until he tried to rob two men just 24 hours later, on the night of September 19.

The two men overpowered Mlalazi and took him to the police, the court heard.

Upon being searched, investigators found in his possession a black Nokia Asha phone. The police called the last dialled number on the phone, which was received by the rape victim's brother who narrated how his. sister had been robbed and raped hours earlier.

Mlalazi was remanded in custody to October 7.