Police in Cape Town’s Mitchells Plain area are searching for three suspects who raped two women in separate incidents, a spokesman said.
On June 6 around 10.30 pm, a woman on her way to her friend in Heinz Park was attacked by a man believed to be in his 20s, provincial police spokesman Captain FC van Wyk said in a statement.
The suspect approached the woman when she reached a highway bridge in the area and raped her. Van Wyk said an identikit of the suspect was compiled with the help of the victim who described him as slender in build and approximately 1.5 metres tall.
In a separate incident on the same day, two men allegedly raped a woman on an open field in Colorado Park in Mitchells Plain.
The victim could only describe one of her attackers and with her help police managed to compile a composite sketch of the suspect.
Van Wyk said the incident occurred at approximately 11.59 pm as the victim was on her way to look for her child’s father in the Woodlands area.
The two men approached her, forced her to the field and took turns to rape her. Van Wyk urged anyone who might recognise any of the suspects to contact the investigating officer at the Mitchells Plain station’s family violence, child protection and sexual offences section.
Residents and local organisations in the Western Cape province, like others elsewhere in South Africa, are up in arms over a rise in the murder and rape of women.
In one of the latest attacks, a 17-year-old girl was found murdered in the Philippi area two weeks ago, sparking protest marches.
Source: ANA