Student left undressed in park after drugging and rape

Police in South Africa are investigating an attack on a Mpumalanga student who was allegedly kidnapped, drugged, raped and left undressed in a park.

Police spokesperson Constable Nkomozakhe Khumalo said the 20-year-old college student was attacked in Matsulu, east of the provincial capital, Mbombela, while visiting a friend on Monday.

"I can confirm the case of rape. No one has been arrested at this stage and police are still investigating," Khumalo said on Wednesday.

Matsulu Community Policing Forum chairperson Robert Sambo said the student had visited her friend on Sunday and was planning to return to Kanyamazane the next day when the incident happened.

Sambo said he found the woman near his house on Monday.

"The woman was undressed and sitting near the bush. When we went to see what happened to her, she could not talk as she was still traumatised by the incident," said Sambo.

Sambo said they took her to the house where she had been visiting and helped her to get dressed.

"I decided to give her a pen and a piece of paper... She wrote that she went to Matsulu to visit her friend when an unknown man came to the house and forcefully took her. She said that she... woke up near a bush, undressed and traumatised."

Sambo said the student was subsequently admitted to Rob Ferreira Hospital.