Seven men are charged with gang-raping eight models including a teenager in crime that has shocked South Africa

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Seven men are charged with gang-raping eight models including a teenager in crime that has shocked South Africa​

The models and crew, aged 19 to 37, were allegedly raped up to ten times each

The say the attack happened while they filmed gospel music video at mine dump

Police arrested around 80 men and have since charged seven 'illegal miners'

Officers believe more will be charged as they get back the results of DNA tests

Seven men have been charged with gang-raping eight models including a teenager in a crime that has shocked South Africa.
The models and crew, the youngest of whom was 19 and the eldest 37, were allegedly raped up to ten times each over several hours close to a mine near Johannesburg.
The women say the 'horrible' attack happened when heavily-armed men burst into the filming of a gospel music video at a mine dump in the township of West Village, near Krugersdorp on July 28.

The BBC was told by officials that the men who appeared in court alongside 60 suspects facing immigration and firearms charges are illegal miners who dig for gold from disused shafts.

The suspects are believed to be illegal migrants and were identified during a police line-up by the women.

Police said they were investigating 32 counts of rape as well as robbery and believe after DNA tests are concluded the number charged could be raised.

Last week, around 80 men were arrested amid a backlash against illegal miners in South Africa and a call from the president to find the suspects. .
The BBC was told by officials that the men who appeared in court alongside 60 suspects facing immigration and firearms charges are illegal miners who dig for gold from disused shafts. Pictured: Illegal miners search for gold in an abandoned mine west of Johannesburg, South Africa on August 5
One of the victims also told the BBC they are seeking 'justice for all the girls that went through this […] for the countless number of women who've been raped in this country'.

Several political parties and civil society groups protested outside the court saying the men should be denied bail.

Earlier this month, President Cyril Ramaphosa said: 'These horrible acts of brutality are an affront to the right of women and girls to live and work in freedom and safety.

'We call upon communities to work with the police to ensure that these criminals are apprehended and prosecuted.'

South Africa's Minister for Women Maite Nkoana-Mashabane said: 'We find ourselves in a moment of crisis where we need to act collectively to defend the democratic gains that the women of 1956 have worked so hard to achieve.'

One of the teenagers who was among the eight models viscously gang-raped described the attack and told how she and her sister had their virginity 'stolen' by the men.

Nombosino, 19, whose name has been changed, and her 21-year-old sister had accepted a £15 a day job to model in a gospel music video when they were ambushed by the gang near an abandoned gold mine close to Krugersdorp on July 28.

The teenager told how the men raped the black and Indian women but left the three white women who were among the 22-strong production crew alone.

The models and crew, the youngest of whom was 19 and the eldest 37, were raped up to ten times each over several hours by the criminals.

Nombosino told local newspaper City Press: 'We were excited when a local girl who runs a modelling agency told us about the photoshoot and promised us R300 each (£15) at a farm in Krugersdorp.

'Then it was decided to shoot another part at a mine and the place was beautiful then as we were about to film the last scene men began running at us firing gunshots in the air.

'They ordered everyone to lie down and more men came running out and they all had guns and they started searching us taking our phones and clothes and cameras.

'During the search they began touching our private parts and one forced me into a car and that was when the first man raped me. I started bleeding as a second man came.

He saw the blood but raped me anyway and I asked him to tell the others not to rape me and had to lie and say I had just lost my baby as they picked is off one by one'.

Nomboniso said her sister, 21, who has not been named, was then put in the car with her.

Nomboniso said she sat on her sister's lap to try and protect her but two men took her out the car and dragged her to a hole in the ground.

The 21-year-old sister told City Press: 'The two men started raping me. They had guns and threatened to kill me if I didn't do as they said. I started bleeding and that helped me.

'It was a very traumatic experience which lasted about four hours for all the girls and one of the ladies was raped in front of us'.

The backlash against illegal miners in South Africa is gathering pace as local residents formed mobs to beat them and destroy their camps in retaliation for the.
Miners' camps were torched and roads around the townships of Munsieville and Bekkersdal outside the town of Krugersdorp, west of Johannesburg, were barricaded with rocks and burning tires as residents protested against the presence of illegal miners.

Many of the miners are migrants from other African coontries, and the reaction has raised concerns over xenophobia, with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Friday condemning the violence.

Local residents enraged at the incident torched illegal miners' camps in the neighboring Kagiso township on Thursday, and attacked miners whom they stripped naked and beat before handing them over to the police.

'We need to distinguish between legitimate protest and criminality, addressing the concerns and grievances of communities while acting to prevent loss of life and destruction of property,' Ramaphosa said.

'We can all understand the public outrage in Kagiso sparked by the gang rape of eight young women last week and we all deeply and sincerely share in the pain of the victims, their families and the neighboring communities,' he added.

Kopanang Africa, an advocacy group against xenophobia in South Africa, has warned that the recent events in Krugersdorp were dangerously fueling anti-migrant sentiment.

'Unfortunately, because some of [...] the illegal miners would be undocumented migrants, this has created an element of xenophobic politics where people say all illegal immigrants must go and all foreigners must leave the country,' said Kopanang Africa spokesman Dale McKinley.

He said some people were taking advantage of the legitimate concerns of the community to further their own agendas.

'When the protests started, we started seeing political formations that have clear xenophobic policies taking advantage and making irresponsible and immature statements for their own purposes,' he said.
Researcher and analyst Ziyanda Stuurman told The Associated Press that communities' frustration at the deterioration of policing and their living conditions contributed to their anger.

South Africa suffers from rising poverty levels, 35 per cent unemployment, an electricity crisis, stagnant economic growth and the third highest crime rate in the world.

'People are living in incredibly tough economic conditions and they feel desperately unsafe, and an issue like this sparks those emotions that have been there for a very long time,' Stuurman said.

She likened the situation to the social unrest and riots in South Africa in July last year, where more than 400 'people' in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng provinces died.

The zama zamas, as the illegal miners are known, illegally venture into old, closed-down mines where they burrow into the rock to try gold ore and other precious metals.

Many die when long-disused tunnels collapse, and others who strike gold are often murdered by jealous rivals.

A resident of Krugersdorp speaking on condition of anonymity told News 24 that news of the sexual violence last week came as no surprise.

She said: '[Zama zamas] have long terrorised residents and we hear gunshots at night. It's not something new. It is an old and ongoing problem that petrifies us all.
 
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