Free State - A 35-year-old woman who reported a false case of rape and robbery appeared in the Virginia Magistrate’s Court in the Free State, police reported on Thursday.
Provincial police said in a statement: “The woman is now a suspect in cases of theft, defeating the ends of justice and furnishing a false statement under oath which is [being] investigated by Thabong Cluster Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit (FCS).”
Warrant Officer Malebo Khosana said the case was reported at Meloding SAPS on Sunday, 17 May 2015 at about 7:10am.
“She alleged that on Sunday morning at about 3:30am someone broken the door of the house she was sleeping in and raped her,” said Khosana. “She further alleged that the suspect also took her 3 cell phones and R600 cash.”
Khosana said the woman reported that the suspect was unknown to her but that she would be able to point him out when she saw him.
“The case was assigned to Detective Constable Moipone Sefohlelo who arrested the ‘suspect’, which was pointed out by her, three days after the incident. He has already appeared at Virginia Magistrate’s Court.”
Meanwhile on Monday, 01 June 2015 Detective/Constable Sefohlelo received a call from Winburg SAPS that the sister of the woman of the alleged rape and robbery case was opening a case of theft against her.
Khosana said, “This case emanates from the fact that the cellphones that were reported robbed from her after the rape are actually with the woman. In other words, the incident that she reported of rape and robbery of cellphones was a fabricated story.”
It was stated that the woman said she reported the theft to punish her sister who was the owner of the cell phones.
The office of the Thabong Cluster, Commander Major General Lerato Molale appealed to community members to stop using the State resources, especially police functions to settle personal issues.
“This tendency is negatively affecting service delivery in the sense that resources are used for people who do not seriously need the service instead of helping people who are in dire need of policing services. People such as these end up in trouble with the law because we will deal with them accordingly and place them before the courts for justice to take its course,” Molale said.
ANA