Sex slave to 'old white men'
2003-02-16 08:12
Johannesburg - A young Pretoria girl this week told a horrifying story of three months of hell during which she was forced into sex slavery, repeatedly raped, drugged and tortured by a ring of paedophiles before her tormentors left her for dead in a dark and damp alley in Hillbrow, Johannesburg.
Hillbrow police found her battered and unconscious. She was naked and had multiple stab wounds in her private parts.
She was taken to the Johannesburg hospital where she was treated.
The list of the accused, who allegedly raped her stretches from Pretoria and Johannesburg to far-flung areas like Brits, a small tobacco farming town in the North West province. Among the people charged in Pretoria for rape are three white businessmen ranging in age from 35 to the late fifties.
They are Peter Fulip of Mayville, Martinus "Bassie" Prinsloo of Gezina while police are looking for a third man from Brits.
Sex slavery
The men have been charged, together with a 37-year-old Winterveldt woman, Maria Ouma Modisane, who allegedly masterminded the "selling" of the girl. Modisane is being charged as an accomplice to rape and abduction.
These three have made two court appearances thus far and both Fulip and Modisane have been remanded in custody while Prinsloo is out on R5 000 bail.
Through her aunt and foster guardian, the still visibly shaken girl, now 15, told City Press in an exclusive interview how she was forced into sex slavery by a woman in their neighbourhood when she was barely 14 and only in Grade 7.
Her aunt told City Press from her Winterveldt home, north of Pretoria, how her niece was forced, through coercion, intimidation and threats to become a child prostitute. It was a nightmarish journey that began in the working class suburb of Mayville, Pretoria, where the child and her single mother rented a room.
The aunt, a 43-year-old mother of two - who shares both her first name and surname with the victim - accused Modisane whose family home is just a stone's throw from hers in Winterveldt, of being responsible for prostituting her niece for her own financial gain.
She claims the suspect, who is known to her family, is operating a child prostitution ring in Mayville.
Old white men
Recounting her niece's alleged ordeal, she said: "She was barely 14 when this woman started forcing her to sleep with old white men in the neighbourhood for money. My sister, who works until late in the night, was oblivious to her daughter's woes.
"Maria threatened to kill the kid if she ever said a word to anyone. There were several other men but the girl can only recall the three. Maria made quite a lot of money out of the girl."
When local interest in the girl waned, Maria allegedly struck a deal with a gang of foreign nationals living "somewhere around Johannesburg".
"They came to Pretoria and after discussions with Maria, they abducted the girl, forced her into the boot of their car and left with her for an unknown destination.
'Kill her'
"She recalls that she was kept tied to an armchair and was repeatedly drugged, beaten and gang-raped by the three during a period spanning more than three months."
According to the girl, she overheard constant telephone discussions between her captors and Maria. In the last call Maria apparently appealed to the three to kill the girl because the police net was closing in on her.
It was after that call, the girl says, that she was injected with a drug and blacked out. Police are searching for the three, who are still at large.
Inspector Mkhondo of the Pretoria child protection unit confirmed two men and a woman had been arrested and charged with rape, accessory to rape and abduction.