Johannesburg – One of the men accused of gang raping Ina Bonnette said he was told they were “lucky to get the chance to sleep with a white woman”, the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria heard on Thursday.
Sello Mphaka testified he initially refused to co-operate when he was told he had to have sex with Bonnette, the wife of Modimolle businessman Johan Kotzé.
Kotzé, Mphaka, Andries Sithole, and Pieta Mohlake are alleged to have kidnapped, raped, and attempted to murder Bonnette in Kotzé’s rented Modimolle house on 3 January 2012.
They are also accused of murdering her 19-year-old son Conrad.
The four have pleaded not guilty.
Kotzé claimed he could not be held accountable for his actions. The other three said they had only pretended to rape Bonnette.
Bonnette testified that Sithole, Mohlake, and Mphaka looked on while Kotzé sexually tortured her and cut off her nipples and then took turns to rape her.
Mphaka testified that Kotzé was full of jokes when he took the three of them to Modimolle to wash his caravan.
Once there, they had to remove and replant palm trees before they were called into the house, supposedly to fetch soap so they could wash the caravan.
Once inside, Sithole told them they were there to have sex with Kotzé’s wife because he was “too fat” to have sex with her himself. She had affairs and had asked him to get other men to have sex with her.
“Andries said the woman would pretend not to know what was going to happen and she wanted to be tied up and gagged because she was noisy. I told Mohlake something’s not right,” Mphaka said.
“Andries [Sithole] said where will you ever see a white person giving his wife to black people? We’re lucky. Now we can experience how it feels [to have sex with a white woman].”
“I said no, I don’t want to sleep with the woman. That’s not what I came there to do. Mohlake also said he could not. Kotzé should rather pay us so that we could leave.
“Kotzé said he was not going to listen to a kaffir. A kaffir would do as he said. He said if we did not co-operate, no one would leave there alive. He said a kaffir is a strange thing. He rapes on his own but when you give him a woman he refuses.
“He did not look the same as before. He was angry. He came back with pantyhose and a firearm. He said he wanted to hear nothing further from us. Andries must give us the pantyhose to wear on our heads,” he said.
Forced at gunpoint
Mphaka testified that Kotzé forced him and Mohlake at gunpoint to get into a cupboard, where they could see through a tiny hole how Kotzé tied up his wife while Sithole taped her mouth shut.
Kotzé then ordered Sithole to have sex with his wife.
“The woman was not lying still. She kicked and then Kotzé slapped her. She asked why do you allow them to do this to me? He [Kotzé] said because you’re running around [with other men]. Who is the man in the red Volvo?
“I went to lie on her. I pulled down my zip, but my penis was still in my underpants.
“Kotzé pulled me away because he could see what I was doing. He called Mohlake, who also lay on top of her with his pants still on,” he said.
Mphaka did not agree with Bonnette’s evidence that he had an erection and raped her.
The trial continues on Friday.
– SAPA
The Guardian 