Cosatu says the spate of women killings, abuse and rape in the North West is alarming and should be investigated
|||A spate of women killings, abuse and rape in the North West was alarming and should be investigated, Cosatu said on Wednesday.
“Very soon the North West will be labelled as the province of women abusers, killers and child rapists,” Cosatu provincial secretary Solly Phetoe said in statement.
The union federation said it was concerned about what was causing the violence.
“We want to call on the government to investigate these actions, as they do not represent our province very well.”
At least 13 rapes had been reported since the start of the weekend in the province, a statistic that the police described as “alarming”.
Phetoe said: “It seems this is a monthly activity in the North West – (having) a woman killed, raped or violently abused and there is a low rate of conviction for the perpetrators of these barbaric actions.”
The province was already saddled with “critical challenges of racial killings and racial abuse of farm workers and their children”.
A 38-year-old man was arrested on Monday after he allegedly raped a 74-year-old woman in the province. The man, known to the woman, allegedly stormed into her house, beat her with a stick and then raped her, police spokeswoman Colonel Emelda Setlhako said.
A traditional healer was arrested on Sunday for allegedly raping his apprentice at Ipelegeng, outside Schweizer-Reneke.
A couple from Mokgareng village, near Taung, was arrested earlier this month for the murder of a teenage girl. The 17-year-old's torso was found wrapped in a plastic bag. Her legs, arms and head were found metres away, also wrapped in plastic.
She was believed to have been the man's second girlfriend, police said at the time. – Sapa