A teen who laid a rape complaint after Buffalo City Metro’s Christmas lights festivities was cross-examined on the stand last week.The girl cannot be named to protect her identity as a victim of sexual assault.
Sivenathi White and Phuwelo Ma-Afrika, represented by Ntsikelelo Manyisane and Sivuyile Mnyute, have pleaded not guilty.
A third suspect is still at large.
The teen told the court that three men had accosted her and took her at knife point to a bushy area behind the Garden Court at the beachfront.
She had gone to the ceremony with her friends.
She said she spent an hour and half with the men before they left. She then sat at the spot until morning and left.
Manyisane asked why she did not find her friends and get help after the alleged rape. She said she was ashamed and embarrassed and afraid her friends would judge her.
“Do you realise that one scream could have saved you?” Manyisane asked.
The girl said: “I was shocked and I was scared of being stabbed to death.”
Manyisane pointed out discrepancies between her evidence-in-chief and her statement to police.
Her statement said she was wearing a crop top and high-waisted jeans and said they took off her jeans and underwear.
Last week, the court heard she was raped while lying on grass and small stones, but she not sustain any injuries.
Asked if she felt any pain after the forced penetration, the girl said: “A little bit.”
Manyisane said, according to a medical report, she did not sustain any physical injuries. The girl confirmed this.
“The doctor took a specimen and compared it to DNA, but there was no match,” Manyisane said.
Initially, the girl said: “Well it was a gang rape so their DNA must have mixed.”
After magistrate Twanet Olivier intervened saying lab specialists were able to separate the DNA, the girl said she did not know why there was no link.
The trial was postponed to March 29. — siyab@dispatch.co.za
Rape complainant cross-examined
The girl cannot be named to protect her identity as a victim of sexual assault.
Sivenathi White and Phuwelo Ma-Afrika, represented by Ntsikelelo Manyisane and Sivuyile Mnyute, have pleaded not guilty.
A third suspect is still at large.
The teen told the court that three men had accosted her and took her at knife point to a bushy area behind the Garden Court at the beachfront.
She had gone to the ceremony with her friends.
She said she spent an hour and half with the men before they left. She then sat at the spot until morning and left.
Manyisane asked why she did not find her friends and get help after the alleged rape. She said she was ashamed and embarrassed and afraid her friends would judge her.
“Do you realise that one scream could have saved you?” Manyisane asked.
The girl said: “I was shocked and I was scared of being stabbed to death.”
Manyisane pointed out discrepancies between her evidence-in-chief and her statement to police.
Her statement said she was wearing a crop top and high-waisted jeans and said they took off her jeans and underwear.
Last week, the court heard she was raped while lying on grass and small stones, but she not sustain any injuries.
Asked if she felt any pain after the forced penetration, the girl said: “A little bit.”
Manyisane said, according to a medical report, she did not sustain any physical injuries. The girl confirmed this.
“The doctor took a specimen and compared it to DNA, but there was no match,” Manyisane said.
Initially, the girl said: “Well it was a gang rape so their DNA must have mixed.”
After magistrate Twanet Olivier intervened saying lab specialists were able to separate the DNA, the girl said she did not know why there was no link.
The trial was postponed to March 29. — siyab@dispatch.co.za
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