Only days after an East London grandmother told police minister Bheki Cele that there was too much crime in her area, her six-year-old grandchild was raped.
East London police spokesperson Captain Hazel Maqala said a man had been arrested on Monday.
Mqala said: “According to the investigator, the victim was walking with her mother and came across a male and pointed [him out] as the suspect.”
The Parkside grandmother, 74, was one of several community members who were asked to speak to the minister during his visit at an event in Gompo.
The grandmother, however, claimed the police were slow to apprehend the suspect.
“The police sent detectives on Friday and they told us not to speak to the child until they get a professional person to talk to the little one,” she said.
“But they never called back.
“The accused lives right next to us. The community wanted to take action, but the police waited for a whole week to arrest him, they are not doing their job.”
“I spoke to the minister of police last week telling him about the crime in our area.
“Our children are not safe here.
“The crime is caused by this drug tik. There are cases that never go forward with the police because parents and kids are too scared to talk.
“The police have been dragging their feet in this.
“We really need visible policing because we do not want rapists in our community.”
Mqala said the man was arrested a week later because the child did not speak about the incident until later.
“She did not want to talk, even to the parents.
“It was only [after] suspicion from the parents [because] the victim was walking oddly and [they then] checked the victim and noticed that she seemed to have been sexually violated.”
Speaking to the Dispatch on Monday, the child’s emotional mother recalled how “shocked” she was when her daughter pointed out a man in the neighbourhood.
She said the suspect, a middle-aged man, was a trusted member of the community.
She said her daughter was taken to the Cecilia Makiwane Hospital on January 26 for a medical examination that confirmed she had been raped.
“My child does not eat and does not play like she used to, it’s like she is living in a world of her own.”
During the interview with the Dispatch, a crowd of 20 neighbours called for the suspect to be arrested.
A police van arrived with two police officials and the suspect was loaded into the back of the van.
Community member Hilda Prince said the community would stage a protest should the man be granted bail.
“Real men do not rape our children,” she said...