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Johannesburg - A girl testifying in the trial of an alleged serial rapist said she thought he had rubbed muti on her and her friend to make them comply with his instructions.
"It was because he rubbed us with this stuff that turned us into idiots," the 17-year-old said quietly through an interpreter in the trial of Peter Dashboy Khoza in the Palm Ridge Magistrate's Court, sitting as the High Court in Johannesburg.
Khoza, who sat in the dock in shackles, has pleaded not guilty to 39 charges of kidnapping, 37 charges of rape, 37 charges of grievous bodily harm, 11 charges of sexual assault, 27 charges of attempted murder and five charges of theft.
One of his alleged victims, Amanda*, who now lives in Lesotho, testified that she was playing with five friends in Slovo, a settlement near Eldorado Park on May 6, 2012, when the man she identified in court as Khoza came up to them and asked where he could buy milk.
She was nearly 14 at the time. When he came back from the shop, he asked her and a friend, Belinda* to show him the place the shopkeeper had sent him to to get change. Instead he walked with them past trees and houses to a deserted area, she testified.
At about 17:00, when it started getting dark, he said he was scared because there were criminals in the area, so took them to a place where there was a "huge water pipe" and made a fire.
Amanda seemed intimidated by the courtroom, and earlier the prosecutor had asked that all men leave the court, apart from the officials, saying it had been the girl's request.
Judge Eben Jordaan also tried to reassure her: "Be calm. We are not going to treat you badly in any way."
'We did not want to go with him'
Amanda continued: "We did not want to go with him. We wanted to go back, but he said we must not go back because there are killers. He said he would take us back using another direction, but that direction led to the pipe.
"He said he is going to rape me. He then gave me a condom and said I must open it. I then opened it. He said I must undress my panty. I undressed my panty."
She does not remember if he put the condom on before he raped her.
After that he said "let's relax" to Amanda.
He took out Vaseline and made her rub it on his penis, and he rubbed some on her vagina and then on her friend's vagina, she told the court.
He hit her friend Belinda and said she must lie down and sleep, otherwise he would kill her.
At about 05:00 in the morning, he said they could go and when they got to a freeway, he said he was going to relieve himself.
Amanda said as they started walking on the freeway, a police van with both their mothers inside drove past.
They were taken to the police station to be questioned, and then to a doctor to be examined. Police looked for the accused, but could not find him.
During her testimony she said she believed it was some "black stuff" in the Vaseline that he had rubbed on her and her friend that had made them compliant.
The trial continues.
*Names have been changed.
