Cape Town - A 20-year-old woman from Philippi has been left traumatised after a rather bizarre attempted robbery during which she and two of her schoolmates were accosted by gun-wielding criminals demanding used sanitary products and contraceptive implants.
The woman, who cannot be named, alleges that while they were on their way home from night school the criminals inserted their fingers into their private parts in a bid to remove any tampons or pads themselves.
The distraught victim said that on the evening of February 25, after 7pm, they were approached by two men carrying guns as they left Sinethemba High School in Sagwityi Street.
“We initially didn't pay any attention to them but they approached us and we asked what were they looking for. They asked us if we were on our menstrual periods and that they were looking for used sanitary pads and implants.
“We told them we had no pads and were begging them to not kill us. They then inserted their fingers into our vaginas to ascertain that we had no pads and left when they couldn’t find anything,” she said.
The criminals allegedly smoke the contraceptive implants but what they utilise the used sanitary pads for remains a mystery.
The victim’s mother, Pamella Mhlana, who recently took to social media to warn women about this “new” crime trend, said her daughter arrived home that evening distraught and crying.
Mahlana said she was taken aback that such an incident would happen to her daughter, especially after hearing about incidents of the same nature happening in Khayelitsha and other areas.
“I never thought that this would happen in our area and especially to me or my daughter. Being robbed is a traumatic experience and I can’t imagine being robbed at gunpoint and having someone inserting their dirty hands in your private parts.
“What is worrying me is how she has changed after the incident and is constantly triggered by small things. While she has gone back to school I still worry about her safety. Just yesterday she wrote on Facebook that she was broken inside and I worry that she might do something to herself, as she is a quiet person,” she said.
Mhlana said the incident was not reported to the police as the girls didn’t know the two perpetrators. She said this was something that needed to be looked at, as another incident allegedly occurred a week later to a woman who was walking to Inzame Zabantu Clinic in the area.