A 90-year-old granny wept bitterly when she told Limpopo Mirror about her fight with a young man who allegedly wanted to rape her inside her hut. Now she is afraid that the suspected rapist, who is well known in the community, may attack her again.

The incident happened about a fortnight ago at around 03:00 at her home in Mashau-Thenga village, near Elim. Vho-Denga Luvhengo, a pensioner who stays with her granddaughter, is sickly and can hardly walk. On the night of the incident, Luvhengo's daughter was attending an all-night prayer session at a distant part of the village.

The granny explained that she had heard some heavy footsteps outside. She rushed to peep out through a hole in the door. “I saw [a man] dressed in a heavy coat, coming straight to my door,” she said, and added that there was light from an external bulb in the front of the hut, helping her to recognise a local resident.

The man knocked softly and the granny asked who it was, but he just moved away from the door and went around to the back of the house, where he then switched off the main switch. He forced open the door.

“He came straight towards me and jumped at me as I was sitting in my bed,” she said. “He had his coat unbuttoned and he had no other clothes on. I felt his penis on my thigh. I knew he was going to kill me with his evil intentions.” She added that she prayed for God to give her some strength just once more in her life. “We fought for about five minutes ... as he tried to rape me,” she wept.

“I cried for help. He tried to gag me with a cloth that he had picked up, but I pushed his hand off and cried harder.” The intruder finally accepted defeat and ran away after realising that the neighbours would be coming any time soon.

Mr John Ndou (52) arrived first at the granny’s house, and other neighbours came too. “She was weeping as she told us that a man had assaulted her in an attempt to force himself on her,” he said. “We were very angry, because he (the same man) had entered my daughter’s room about an hour earlier and attempted to rape my younger daughter.”

Ndou had tried to report both incidents to the Levubu police station. He felt that the police should have visited the old lady at her home and helped her to open a case. He claims that the police told him that the community members should have arrested the suspect. “I requested them to open a case, but they said we should just leave the suspect as he was, because he would do it again – and only then they would come to arrest him,” he said angrily.

Ndou explained that the suspect was on a burglary and assault spree. The suspect had allegedly entered Ndou’s house and slipped into the bed of Ndou's 12-year-old daughter. “She screamed for help and we woke up and rushed to the children’s room,” he said. His daughter told him who the intruder was as he was a fellow resident.

The suspect allegedly later confronted Ndou and asked for forgiveness for attempting to rape his daughter. “We forgave him, but a week later I heard some strange noises outside. I picked up a hammer and went out to investigate,” he said. “I found him standing near the chicken shed. I asked him why he was there and he said he was just standing. So I hammered him on the head three times. He ran away.”

He added that he was now prepared to go to extremes to "protect my daughters from the rapist who wants to mess up their lives,” he said. “The police are not helping us either. That old lady is in much pain. She also needs counselling, or else the stress will kill her. She has been crying all the time ever since the incident happened.”

According to residents who declined to be named, the suspect is in his 30s and he lives alone. His parents have passed away.

Luvhengo said that she would never forgive the suspect for the rest of her life. “He denies ever intruding into my house and trying to dirty me up,” she said. “This child used to come here to ask transport money from me, and I helped him many times. Now this is how he thanks me for my kindness.”

The station commander for Levubu police station, Lt Col Sydney Mashamba, said that the station was not aware of the incidents. “We will send our police officers to the old lady and Ndou now,” he said. “This case sounds very serious and we wonder why we do not have it in our records.”