The recordings were intended for a video clip of a gospel choir. The setting: an old mine, northwest of Johannesburg.
Everyone had to lie down
But it all went wrong when armed men suddenly appeared on the film set. They would first have fired into the air, after which everyone had to lie on the ground.
After that, at least eight models from 19 to 35 years old were allegedly raped several times. “Some women were assaulted by ten men,” police later said of the event.
Robbed of valuables
In the end, the men robbed everyone on set, taking clothes, phones, rings, passports, watches, bags, money and cameras.
The police launched a major investigation into the robbery and rape and arrested 65 people the same day. Yesterday another 17 arrests were made. Two people were shot dead during the arrests for allegedly pointing their weapons at the police.
‘Awful’
South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa reacted to the rapes, calling it “horrific.” “Women and children are very vulnerable to the violence perpetrated by men.” Ramaphosa thereby refers, among other things, to the large numbers of incidents of sexual violence in his country.
