A 52-year-old woman has quit her job and opened a case of sexual assault and rape after she was allegedly attacked TWICE by a colleague.
A senior traffic officer at the Shadow Centre, the traffic department’s drug-testing centre in Athlone, has since been arrested and appeared in court on Monday.
She says she and senior provincial inspector Thembisile “Tera” Nongogo worked in close proximity to each other. She claims he bent her over a chair in their office and raped he in August and October.
The traumatised woman says the man did not use a condom.
She had complained to the senior official in charge after the second alleged rape, but received a letter, dated 19 November 2018, telling her there is no evidence of the “sexual assault” she described and therefore “no disciplinary action will be taken” against her colleague.
The woman then opened a case at Athlone Police Station last week and Nongogo was arrested.
Speaking to the Daily Voice, she explains: “It began in August. We had been working side by side for a while by then. He touched himself through his pants and moaned loudly, looking at me. I told him he must stop and I left.
“He did that a lot and then later he took his penis out and stroked it, saying he could not help himself around me. I told him to stop or I would report him,” she says.
One evening while working, he allegedly raped her.
ACCUSED: The accused officer is popular at work
“He got up and moved one of the chairs towards where there are no cameras in the office,” the woman explains.
“He lifted me up and I was frozen in fear. He untied his pants, saying he will be quick. He bent me over the chair and raped me in that chair, got up and left. I was screaming in my head every time ‘say something! cry out!’ But I could not make a sound and just let it happen.”
After the second time, she told her husband, but when they reported it to her bosses, she says they failed to take action.
“They were cold and uncaring. He is well-liked and has all his colleagues on his side,” she says.
“I was raped twice when I was 17 years old and had to have an abortion. I never got counselling and my rapists were never punished because I was afraid. But I will not let this man get away with what he did,” she says adamantly.
The mother of two has since quit her job.
Police spokeswoman Sergeant Noloyiso Rwexana confirmed the charges against Nongogo.
“A case of rape was opened on 5 December at Athlone Police Station and the suspect was arrested and appeared in court on 7 December.”
Nongogo is set to appear in court again in January.
Provincial Traffic did not respond to enquiries.