OWN CORRESPONDENT, Mahlabathini | Monday 7.00pm.
POLICE on Monday arrested the last of a gang of five men who last week allegedly abducted, gang-raped and robbed three Swiss tourists in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province.
The suspect, in his late teens or early twenties, was handed over to the Mahlabathini police station in northern KwaZulu-Natal by his brother and other relatives, police spokesman Director Bala Naidoo said.
His arrest follows the first court appearance Monday of his four co-accused, aged between 18 and 21, who were charged with seven counts of rape and one of armed robbery, according to a prosecutor.
Prosecutor Muntukayise Khumalo said the men appeared briefly in the Mahlabithini magistrates’ court and were remanded in custody. They would appear again in court on November 30, he said. The fifth man was expected to appear in the Mahlabathini court on Tuesday.
The suspects allegedly abducted three Swiss women, all in their thirties, outside the Umfolozi game reserve, near Mahlabithini, on Wednesday. After forcing their way into the tourists’ car with a gun, the men drove off with them and repeatedly raped two of the women throughout the night, before abandoning them near a mine in the area, police said. The third tourist escaped harm by telling the gang she was ill. — AFP
19