Nearly 40 incidents in six days ranging from drunk and disorderly to rape and murder kept police in the Grahamstown Cluster busy. This summary is compiled from police reports from Saturday 23 to Thursday 28 December.
Drunk and disorderly behaviour – Saturday 23, Sunday 24: 5
Reckless and negligent driving – Sunday 24: 1
Drunk and Driving – Sunday 24: 4
Motor vehicle accident – Monday 25: A vehicle travelling from Peddie to Grahamstown overturned in strong winds. Two of the four occupants were taken to hospital.
Theft out of motor vehicle – Sunday 24: 1
House burglaries – Saturday 23: 2
Stock theft – Thursday 28: Three men aged 27, 55 and 39 arrested by the Stock Theft Unit following the slaughter of a cow on a farm near Grahamstown.
Drug arrests – Sunday 24: A quarter of a Mandrax tablet worth R40 seized and the person charged.
Robbery – Saturday 23: 1 in Grahamstown. In Peddie, the employee of a local store was accosted on his way home and robbed of a significant sum of cash, and cellphones.
Common assault – Saturday 23 and Sunday 24: 3
Assault GBH – Saturday 23: 1 Assault GBH and 1 kidnapping and Assault GBH
Culpable homicide – Monday 25: Four people died in a head-on collision between two vehicles on the N2 between Grahamstown and Port Elizabeth, at 4.40am.
Attempted murder – Monday 25: A man was stabbed him in the chest.
Murder – Sunday 24 and Monday 25:
On Christmas Eve, a 65-year-old woman was beaten to death after an argument with a younger relative, who fled and was arrested.
On Christmas Day, a 67-year-old man was found with bloodstains on his clothes, hanging from wire in a toilet at Peddie stadium. He appeared to have been assaulted and a hammer was found nearby.
Rape – Monday 25 and Tuesday 26:
After she tripped and fell, a 62-year-old woman was raped by a man accompanying her from a tavern to her home.
A 14-year-old boy fetching stock from Mayfield farm was raped at knifepoint by a man also fetching animals.
A 63-year-old woman sleeping alone in her Vukani house was raped by a man who said he was looking for her granddaughters.
A 32-year-old woman was raped by two men who also robbed her and her partner at their Extension 9 home.
A woman crossing an open area, returning from a tavern to Extension 9, was raped by two men.
A woman returning to Ethembeni from a tavern around 7pm on Christmas Day was raped by a man who tripped her up after asking her for a cellphone and money.
On Boxing Day, the foster mother of a 13-year-old child reported statutory rape after the child’s boyfriend forced her to go to his house and slept with her.
Contravention of Section 18 of the Initiation Act 5 of 2016 – Saturday 23: 1
Death – Sunday 24: A 61-year-old man returning from a traditional ceremony, who had been drinking all day, was found lying face-down in the street on his way home. No foul play was suspected.
Suicide inquests – Tuesday 26 and Thursday 28:
A 25-year-old man was found hanging from a belt in the outside toilet at a home in Extension 6 in Joza.
A 16-year-old boy was found dead by his grandmother early on the morning of Thursday 28 December. He had hanged himself from a tree, using his own jersey.
