Two women accused of raping an 11-year-old boy in an informal settlement near the King Phalo Airport will spend the rest of the festive season behind bars after abandoning their bail bid.
The women, aged 27 and 29, appeared for the second time on Wednesday afternoon at the East London magistrate’s court.
They face charges of rape after allegedly sexually assaulting the child on November 4 after luring him to one of their shacks.
After the two abandoned their bail application, magistrate Luthando Screetch postponed the case to January 6 for further investigation.
Community members said they were relieved and hopeful following Wednesday’s court outcome.
“We are happy because we have been urging that they must not be granted bail,” Fumanekile Tom said.
Tom denied that the accused women were receiving threats from community members.
“These allegations are not true.
“We want the justice system to play its vital role in ensuring they remain behind bars and that the child is protected at all costs.
“If we wanted to take the law into our own hands, we would have done that on the day we found out [about the alleged rape incident].
“But we called the police and they were arrested that day.”
Tom said previously that the community had given the families of the accused until Tuesday night last week to take their belongings, and “if they do not do that, we will demolish their shacks on our own”.
But Tom said on Wednesday that they had since come to an agreement with the families that they would not demolish the shacks until the families had gathered enough resources to have the furniture fetched, and then they would demolish the shacks on their own.
“We are patrolling their shacks, we do not want anyone to use those shacks until their relatives remove them.
“We have decided that we do not want the two women to comme back into our community,” Tom said.
The mother of the alleged victim said she was hopeful there would be justice for her son.
“The case is promising, and justice will be served.”
Children’s rights activist Petros Majola said the postponement of the case, and keeping the accused in custody, would give time for the boy to get some psychological help and start the healing process.
The families of the suspects declined to comment.
Daily Dispatch
