Manenberg residents are calling for a suspected child rapist to remain in the mang after he allegedly raped his friend’s 12-year-old daughter.
Angry residents filled the Wynberg Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday as Manuel Dean, 33, made his first appearance after being attacked by an angry mob shortly after the incident.
Shamiela Edwards, co-ordinator for the Take Back Our Streets movement, says the horrific scene unfolded in Ruimte Road during the early hours of Sunday morning.
“We were in Letaba Park and we sat there the whole night to help stop the shootings and as we left, we saw this commotion. The mense were going bos and moering him. We asked them what happened and they told us he raped a child. We went looking for the child and found her with her aunty, where she told us he touched her,” she explains.
Shamiela says the community will oppose bail.
Picture: Monique Duval
Shamiela says after being taken to a private room at the police station, the frightened girl burst into tears and told cops how she was raped by the man she calls “uncle”.
“She shouted: ‘Hy het my verkrag!’ We went back to Ruimte Road and it was horrible, they wanted to kill him. A police van came past and they took him. We waited the whole night at the station and the child identified him,” says Shamiela.
Police spokesperson, Captain FC van Wyk, says Dean was taken into custody shortly after midnight on Sunday.
Wearing a grey tracksuit pants and red hoodie, Dean appeared scared as he stood before Magistrate Goolam Bawa on Tuesday.
According to the State prosecutor, the child had gone for a medical exam and the doctor confirmed she had been raped.
Dean opted for a Legal Aid lawyer, Kyle Jason, who asked the court to note Dean’s injuries as a result of the assault by residents.
Bawa postponed the case to 19 July for a bail information hearing and Dean was sent to Pollsmoor Prison.
Manenberg residents at court
Shamiela says the community will oppose bail.
“We decided to picket because we don’t want men like this in the community. We are sick of the fathers, brothers and uncles that do this stuff to our children because it is always someone they know. So we will come to the court every time,” she says.