Zukile Majova
Police have begun the process of linking some of the over 80 foreign nationals who recently appeared at the Krugersdorp Magistrate’s Court to the gang rape of eight women 10 days ago.
The victims were part of a film crew shooting a music video at a mine dump outside Krugersdorp.
Police Minister Bheki Cele told the community of Kagiso that the DNA results of the 80 men were back from the laboratory and new charges will hopefully be added to the list of suspects.
So far, the foreign nationals from Mozambique, Lesotho, Zimbabwe and Malawi have been charged with contravening the country’s immigration laws.
After 10 days of rounding up these foreign nationals, the police are yet to find any physical evidence linking any of the men to the gang rape.
The entire police investigation is now dependent on the suspects being linked to the crime through the DNA results.
An identity parade is also unlikely to yield any positive results because the group of 20 men that attacked the film crew were wearing blankets and covered their faces with balaclavas.
Police have also not yet taken sworn statements from some members of the film crew. The leadership of the police however met six of the eight victims at the Alexandra Police Station over a week ago.
Police Ministry spokesperson Lirandzu Themba said new charges will be added after the suspects are linked through DNA.
“For them to face the charge of sexual assault or for rape they will need to be linked through DNA testing.
“The tests are back. Now it’s up to the linking of these suspects. It’s quite a process; we are talking about over 80 suspects.”
She told the SABC that most of the zamazamas have been processed, which means they had their fingerprints taken and buccal samples (taken by collecting DNA from the cells inside a person’s mouth).
If none of the suspects are linked to the crime by DNA, the police investigators are expected to cast the net even wider as they have arrested over 300 illegal miners in the region.
National Police Commissioner General Fannie Masemola said various specialised units will begin a clean sweep of Kagiso and surrounding communities on Monday.
“We will deploy the highly trained TRT, NIU, Special Task Force and the K9 teams to make sure we flush out all undesirable elements in this area. “Whoever comes with fire will be met with fire.”
