Pretoria - A woman from Winterveldt, north of Pretoria, says she is reeling after being sexually assaulted while in a store at Soshanguve Plaza last week.
The woman, whose identity has been withheld due to the nature of the crime, said the incident took place on April 1 while she was doing her monthly shopping.
She said she was in queue to pay for her items when, about 15 minutes in, she noticed a man wearing shorts, sandals and a T-shirt, standing too close to her.
She said she initially thought nothing of it, but as she kept moving in the queue he continued to move too close to her.
“Every time the queue shifted a bit, I would move forward trying to get away from him, but he would also move and still stand too close to me. That is when I started feeling very uncomfortable.
“At one point I ended up getting out of the queue to take a call, and when I returned to the line he would still stand way too close to me. It was then I started feeling something poking me on my back.”
She said when she got to the front of the queue, she turned around to face the man, and found him holding his erect penis in his shorts.
“I started shouting at him, asking him what he was doing, to draw people’s attention, and he ran inside the shop. I went to the entrance to ask a staff member to close the shop doors so he wouldn’t be able to escape.
“I went back inside the shop to look for him and kept asking him what he was doing, and all he kept saying was ‘sister ngiya xolisa’ (I’m sorry).
“When he saw that I was taking video footage, he covered himself with some clothes and eventually ran out of the shop.”
She said she experienced further trauma after she tried to seek help from the Soshanguve police; they told her it was an “open and shut case” as she could not provide the identity of the perpetrator.
“The police seemed uninterested in listening to me, and even went to the extent of saying that there was nothing they could do as there was no evidence or DNA of the crime.
“Hearing and seeing that kind of reaction from the police when you’re trying to report something so violating further traumatised me, because if they can’t help me who will? It was only after speaking out and spilling out my ordeal on social media posts that they even bothered to try to assist me.”
She said detectives from the Ga-Rankuwa police station eventually came to her to follow up on the inquiry that had been opened.
“I only got the inquiry number on Wednesday, April 5, and that they were still to subpoena the store for video footage.
“Right now I am seeking medical help, as this whole ordeal has affected me negatively and I’m now anxious around clients and in public places.”
Pretoria News