Rhodes Park rape victim's husband's last word was her name

Johannesburg - One of the Rhodes Park rape victims whose husband was killed during the attack came face to face with her alleged attackers in the High Court sitting at Palm Ridge on Tuesday.

The woman fainted as she walked off the stand after giving her testimony. She then sobbed as the three suspects watched.

The woman gave a heart wrenching testimony that left many in the court room in tears.

The woman, who cannot be named, told the court her husband's last words were of him calling out her name before he died.

"They were praying loudly and then they started calling out our names and the prayers faded," she said.

During the first hour of her testimony, the woman appeared calm, often gesticulating while describing the sequence of events that led to her husband's death.

'They all did what they wanted'

She later explained in vivid detail how the several men ripped her panties with a knife as others shoved fingers into her vagina.

"Two fingers... [were] shoved into my vagina. When I tried to close my legs they were forced open. They said to me that maybe there is something hiding inside," she told the court.

"They all did what they wanted. It was not just one person who put their finger in me. Everyone did as they pleased."

She told the court that about three or four times she felt fingers being inserted in her vagina.

She described how the ring leader shouted that "blood should be spilled" because they had not found any valuables on the two couples.

She described how the alleged ring leader demanded she open her thighs and lie face up.

At that stage there were only two men left on the scene, she told the Judge Papi Masopa.

"He said to me, open your thighs and then he dragged my thighs open. At that stage he was in possession of a gun and I thought he was going to kill me. He dropped his pants below his knees and he penetrated me. It did not take long before I heard him ejaculating."

Her attacker was not wearing any protection while he forced himself on her, she said.

'I screamed my husband's name'

The woman was in tears as she described how, after the suspect finished raping her, she noticed that her friend's underwear had also been ripped apart.

"I did not hear what happened to her, but she was also lying in the same position as I, facing up and the legs spread apart. When I asked if they had raped her, she said 'no'," the woman said as tears poured down her face.

She told the court that the two men had left them at the scene, screaming that their husbands "were swimming in the dam like it was their personal swimming pool".

She said, after the suspects fled, she screamed for her husband.

"I screamed my husband's name and there was no response. While we were screaming their names, at some stage we saw a head popping out of the water, it was dark. I screamed his name, then the person disappeared and there was nothing else."

The woman said she was deeply traumatised by the incident.

She told the court she had stayed in hospital for for three months.

"I was hurt by this incident. I was hospitalised until January. I was hurt," the teary woman said.

The case was postponed for Wednesday.

This article first appeared on News24.