A suspected serial rapist is on the loose in Plumtree and Mangwe, Matabeleland South Province, and villagers in the areas are now living in fear.
CITE reported sources as saying the alleged rapist is armed with a machete and has assaulted and raped women in Plumtree Town, Mpoengs, Khalanyoni, Brunapeg, Makwakwa, and other locations.
A Plumtree Town resident who preferred anonymity told CITE that they do not understand why the alleged perpetrator has not been arrested. Said the source:
Plumtree residents are living in fear of a rapist who is gruesomely beating women and raping them. He is a threat to the community and as residents of Plumtree, we need answers as to why he is committing all these crimes but remains a free man.
People who allege to have seen the rapist described him as a strong, dark-complexioned man.
A worried resident narrated an incident in which the suspect reportedly attacked both an aunt and her niece, prompting the niece to flee naked and seek help. Said the resident:
The rapist is terrorising women in Makwakwa. Last week, he raped an aunt and her niece, he started with the aunt and forced her niece to also lie down closer to them.
When he moved to the aunt for the second time, the niece managed to escape naked and managed to scream for help.
The rapist allegedly took the aunt’s phone and threatened to kill her.
Villagers from Makwakwa and Crossroads tracked the suspect but they failed to capture him after they lost his footprints.
Some residents claimed that the perpetrator may have originated from Ngwizi and previously lived in South Africa and Botswana, where he allegedly committed similar crimes. Said a concerned resident:
Women and children are now accompanied by their brothers or husbands. They are no longer free to walk alone as this man is all over the place.
Acting Matabeleland South Provincial police spokesperson, Assistant Inspector Stanford Mguni told CITE he could not comment on the matter as investigations were ongoing.
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