RAPIST ON THE LOOSE AT MANGWANENI

*Sipho, who is the survivor’s husband with their three-year-old son. (R) Montigny rangers getting ready to search for the alleged rapist with one of their dogs. (Pics: Sthembile Hlatshwayo) A map showing Mangwaneni and Mahwalala, where another rape incide

MBABANE – A knife-welding rapist is on the loose at Mangwaneni.
A woman was yesterday raped in front of her three-year-old son while inside her house, by a man who emerged from a nearby thicket.
The incident happened yesterday at around 9.

This has left the community of Mangwaneni reeling from shock as they suspected that this case could be linked with the recent rape incident at Mahwalala about a week ago where a teenage girl was raped and killed.

The Form I pupil of Saim Christian High School was suffocated with an unknown substance and raped while in a rented flat in the area.
The death of the pupil brings the number of killed pupils to three, following the death of two others about three months ago. Both children, aged 13 years, who were pupils at Nkwalini Primary School, were also raped and murdered around the same location.

Shocked

In an interview with some of the shocked community members, they said they feared for their lives.
They said the rapist could be the same person who committed the offence at Mahwalala as he was still at large.
Mangwaneni and Mahwalala are only a couple of kilometres apart.

Narrating her ordeal *Cebile Sibandze said she woke up in the morning to do some house chores, which included laundry, which she did by the veranda outside the house.

Cebile said upon completing the laundry, she ran out of water to rinse it and decided to take the clothing to where they drew water from a nearby tank which is situated in the thick of a forest, a few metres from her homestead.

Along the way, she said she met with the stranger who greeted her. Cebile said she responded and continued to where she was going and did not watch her back as she did not suspect anything. However, she said when she placed her laundry down preparing to rinse it, the man emerged in front of her once again and warned her not to make noise.

According to Cebile, the man related an unclear story that he was looking for people who were illegally selling a homestead in the area and wanted to stop them. “He shared two cellphone numbers which he said I should call in case I saw those people at the homestead,” Cebile said.

She said while they were speaking, another male neighbour who had come to draw water from the tank approached and the man said he would rather speak to him regarding the matter. “Indeed they spoke but I could not hear what they were discussing as I was a bit far from where they were,” she said.

Cebile said the man then left them with the male neighbour who had come to fetch water and while they were talking, they both realised that there was something suspicious about the stranger as they tried to make sense of his stories.

“I then requested my neighbour to wait until I completed rinsing my laundry as I had fears the stranger would come back to hurt me,” said Cebile.

Water

She said when she was about to complete rinsing the clothing, another woman, who is also a neighbour, came to fetch water. Cebile said she decided to free the male neighbour as she had delayed him for a while and remained with the other one.

Upon completion, she said she placed the laundry inside a bucket, while another was in a washing basin and went back home, while her neighbour also left for her homestead. However, she said along the way, she failed to carry both the basin and the bucket and decided to leave the other along the wayside.

Cebile said she then returned to fetch the laundry she had left by the wayside  it was when she felt someone grabbing her by the neck, while closing her mouth with the other hand. She said it was the same man who had greeted her but this time around he was brandishing a knife which he placed against her neck. “He asked if there was someone in the house and I responded that I was alone.”

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