By Everson Luhanga
All 14 suspects who were arrested for the rape of a film crew in Krugersdorp on 28 July have had their charges withdrawn.
The DNA test results which were released earlier this week could not link any of the 14 arrested men to the crimes.
Scrolla.Africa broke the story of eight women who were part of the film crew being gang raped and robbed while filming at an abandoned mine shaft in Krugersdorp on the West Rand.
The women were among a group of 22 people (12 women and 10 men) who were allegedly attacked by a group of armed men clad in blankets.
The nation’s hopes of seeing justice for the abused women have been dashed, at least for now. And the hunt for the real suspects is only beginning, three months after the crimes were committed.
On Wednesday, 26 October, a 14-year-old minor suspect appeared in the Krugersdorp Magistrate’s Court.
He was taken back to the Walter Sisulu Juvenile Centre. He was to appear on Thursday 27 October together with his co-accused, but there is no case against them.
The arrests of the 14 suspects took place after the men were identified by the victims at an identity parade.
An identity parade was unlikely to be definitive because the group of 20 men that attacked the film crew were wearing blankets and covered their faces with balaclavas.
The entire police investigation hung on the suspects being linked to the crimes through DNA results.
On Thursday, 27 October, all 14 suspects appeared in the Krugersdorp Magistrate’s Court and had their charges withdrawn on the rape and robbery charges because neither the identity parade nor the DNA tests could link them to the crimes.
After the news of the crimes broke, police and other law enforcement agencies from different units descended onto the West Rand in a massive operation arresting hundreds of people, mainly the men operating as zamazamas (illegal miners).
The community of Kagiso and other sections of the West Rand also took it upon themselves to hunt down zamazamas. They captured them and handed them over to the police.
Among the hundreds of zamazamas who were arrested, 14 people, including one minor, were identified to have committed the heinous crimes. They have been kept in custody ever since their arrest.
According to sources who spoke to Scrolla.Africa anonymously, the men were identified among the many arrested through identity parades.
Since the men have been in the dock, no one in the media or the public at large has been allowed to see them inside court. The court told the media that they were still conducting identity parades and they could not yet allow their photos to be released to the public.
The last court appearance on 28 September angered politicians who came to support the victims at the Krugersdorp Magistrate’s Court but were not allowed in court when the suspects appeared.
Poppy Mailola, the Deputy Secretary-General of the Economic Freedom Fighters, said the EFF would write to the NPA questioning why the media and the public were not allowed to attend the court proceedings.
Meanwhile six of the seven women who were kept at a place of safety have left, claiming that they are not looked after well by the police. Seven of the eight abused women were offered a safe haven. One didn’t come at all. But now only one of the seven is remaining there.
Pictured above: 14 suspects arrested in connection with the gang rape of eight women have had their charges dropped
Credit: SAPS
