CONGREGANTS of a local church in South Africa were left traumatised and now fear returning to pray after two men barged in, stole cellphones, and forced some of the women to strip and perform sexual acts.
The men targeted the Zion Church in Khayelitsha in the early hours of Easter Sunday, a special day on the Christian calendar. Close to 20 mothers and their children had spent the night at the church. A church member and community leader Babalwa Kese told the Weekend Argus the victims were asleep when they were attacked in the early hours of Easter Sunday.
“It was load shedding but the shack had a lamp,” she said. Kese said she was informed that the two perpetrators knocked on the door. One of the women tried to keep the door closed, but she was overpowered by one of the men and she fell to the floor.
“They were armed with what was later discovered to be a toy gun and a knife. They broke the rechargeable lamp that was hanging from the ceiling,” she said. When the light went out, the duo reportedly told the women to take off their clothes.
“They clearly had evil intentions and forced two women to perform oral sex on them. “Imagine the humiliation. One woman was elderly. Imagine being forced to take her clothes off in front of church members and then having people watch as you are forced to do sexual acts,” said the community leader.
The men then dragged a young woman out of the building. “Her mom ran after them, both women were still naked. The younger woman managed to escape and screamed for help,” she said. The community leader said they found out the identity of the perpetrators.— Weekend Argus