Breaking down in tears at times while describing the ordeal she and her colleague underwent at the hands of a hijack gang in February 2004, a KwaZulu-Natal ambulance assistant told the Pietermaritzburg High Court on Tuesday she had resorted to trickery to save herself from the threat of rape and other abuse.

The woman told Judge Jan Combrink and two assessors she had even lied that she was HIV- positive in an attempt to rescue herself.

The attacker, however, said he did not care and continued with his attempt to force her and her colleague to have intercourse in the back of the moving ambulance at gunpoint.

The woman testified that throughout the ordeal she had constantly been thinking up new “tricks” to prevent sexual acts being perpetrated on her.

She had constantly been thinking up new tricks
The assailant responsible for the sexual abuse – whom she identified as one of the three men on trial before Combrink and the assessors, Thamsanqa Buthelezi, 22, of Mayville in Durban – at one stage demanded that she provide him with a condom as he approached her with an apparent intention to rape her.

She had told him that she did not have condoms and he instructed her to obtain one from the ambulance’s first aid box. She told him it did not contain condoms, but only material for treating ill people.

The woman testified that when she had initially questioned the gunman’s instruction to take off her shirt, he had struck her across the face with his open hand.

He had also hit her on her knee with the firearm when she had questioned his orders, and once when her colleague had not performed a sexual act the gunman wanted him to perform, he too had been hit on his head.

She testified that more than once he had called her a “bitch” and accused the two paramedics of “playing the fool” with him.

‘I collected all our clothing and I was the first to climb out’
At times the gunman had left them to talk to his two companions who had been travelling in the cab of the ambulance. The sliding window separating the cab from the rear of the ambulance had been open at all times, she said.

The woman said when the ambulance jerked to a stop the man who was driving looked through the window and told Buthelezi to give the paramedics back their clothes and release them.

“I did not wait, I collected all our clothing and I was the first to climb out.”

The woman said she and her colleague were both naked, except she still wore a bra. The ambulance drove off leaving them in the dark. They could not recognise the place where they were.

She handed her colleague his shirt and pants and then followed as he tried to find his way to a main road to get help. They decided to hide in tall grass if they saw vehicles approaching as they did not know where the hijackers had gone.

The woman described how she and her colleague communicated by whistling to one another as they ran through the darkness. “There was a time when I whistled and there was no response and I then thought that he had left me. I was crying but kept going forwards. I again whistled and then he responded,” she said.

Eventually they reached the Elandskop main road and after “a long time” they reached a homestead and got help.

While giving her evidence in-camera the woman was reassured by Combrink who also offered to stand the matter down if she became too distressed.

A psychologist and other supporters comforted her during a break in the court proceedings.

Buthelezi and his co-accused, Siphesihle Khumalo, 22, and Mbusiswa Zondi, 21, of Taylor’s Halt, have pleaded not guilty.

During cross-examination of the woman on Tuesday, the court was told that Buthelezi had withdrawn his earlier defence that he had been coerced into taking part in the robbery and other offences and had admitted involvement.

The case is proceeding.

This article was originally published on page 4 of The Mercury on April 20, 2005

Source: Independent Online (IOL)
URL: http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click…/p>