Free State - Police have arrested a soccer coach for allegedly raping 16 boys from various primary schools in Oranjeville, outside Sasolburg, during training camps.
The alleged crimes took place between 2010 and last month.
Police spokeswoman Sergeant Sellwane Mapamela said the 33-year-old man was arrested on Tuesday after 16 boys aged between 13 and 16 claimed he had raped them.
The man held soccer camps with the boys at his backyard shack.
Mapamela said the coach would rape them after the training.
She said the boys told the police that the coach threatened to kill and bewitch them if they reported him.
The boys came forward on Tuesday when the station commander of Oranjeville police station, Captain Phindile Mahlatsi, and members of the Social Crime Prevention Unit visited schools in the area.
Mahlatsi and the members were celebrating International Women’s Day by conducting an awareness campaign on rape, focusing on boys.
During the campaign, one of the pupils asked if it was possible that a boy could be raped.
“That’s when Mahlatsi explained all the elements of rape and told the boys they should report any incident of rape,” said Mapamela.
She said the police had received complaints from the schools later that day about 16 boys who had been raped.
Police have opened 16 cases of rape.
The suspect will appear at the Heilbron Magistrate’s Court soon.
The Star