Tourist rape: Waiting for DNA
2003-03-17 21:57
Nelspruit - The rape trial against four South African youths accused of abducting and raping British tourist Julie Stevens was postponed to April 17 on Monday for further investigation.
The youths, all unemployed rural villagers living in South Africa's safari province of Mpumalanga, appeared briefly in the Nelspruit sexual offences court on Monday and were remanded in police custody.
The court was supposed to have set a definite trial date on Monday, but was unable to do so as investigators are still waiting for the results of DNA laboratory tests.
Investigator for the police's serious and violent crime unit, Inspector Pukke Lamprecht, said the directorate of public prosecutions would also have to advise on how the case should be handled because of the impact on tourism.
Lamprecht told the court when the men appeared on March 4 that police had ordered that special forensic and DNA samples be taken from Sipho Mbokane, 29, Willie Ngwenya, 20, Eric Msibi, 21, and Zimbabwean national Michael Dube, 20.
Hardline strategy
The costly tests, which are seldom ordered in normal rape investigations, will help police positively identify Stevens' rapist, as well as link suspects to blood found in her hijacked vehicle.
The decision to obtain conclusive forensic evidence forms part of the State's hardline prosecution strategy that has already seen the men charged with rape, murder, abduction, armed robbery, attempted murder, attempted armed robbery, indecent assault and the illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition.
Dube and Mbokane were arrested a day after Stevens and her 25-year-old South African travel companion Tinus Opperman were hijacked while sightseeing at the historic Long Tom Pass between Sabie and Lydenburg on November 16.
Police are however still struggling to trace scores of tavern patrons who allegedly watched as the four paraded their "white flesh" hostages through a string of nearby township drinking dens.
None of the witnesses, who reportedly included one the suspects' sisters and another's girlfriend, called police or attempted to rescue Stevens or Opperman.
The couple's ordeal only ended 14 hours and 220km later, when their vehicle overturned on a wet road between the picturesque mine town of Barberton and the Badplaas hot springs.
An unsuspecting Mozambican motorist, Domingo Albert Chamber (37), stopped to help but was fatally shot in the head.
The kidnappers then fled the scene, but police arrested Dube and Mbokane nearby shortly afterward, while Msibi and Ngwenya were arrested at 100km away in Masoyi village, near White River, two days later.
Msibi was shot while allegedly trying to evade arrest and spent time in hospital nursing a broken hip.
Ngwenya was also shot in the buttocks during the arrest, and uses a catheter because the bullet pierced his bladder.
Murder charges
The gang's state-appointed lawyer, Andre Britz, has previously told the court that his clients decided against applying for bail after Mbokane allegedly confessed to the charges, implicated all his co-accused, and led police both to the rape scene and an automatic teller machine where the victims' bank cards were used to withdraw money.
Witwatersrand University Law Clinic professor, Prof Stephen Tuson, meanwhile has said Stevens was entitled to bring additional attempted murder charges against her assailants should she become HIV positive as a result of the rape.
Murder charges could only be opened if she died of the disease, he added.
The Stevens rape was the most serious in a spate of 32 attacks against foreign tourists to Mpumalanga last year, sparking international outrage and local government pledges to improve security.
British visitors continue to top tourism arrivals to South Africa, however, who are each estimated to spend between R470 to R2 555 a day (about $47 to $255) on accommodation, food, entertainment, transport and shopping.
Tourism generated R34.3bn (about $$3.43bn) for South Africa in 2001, according to the World Trade Organisation. - African Eye News Service