Francistown — A gang of four youths, Nonkululeko Meshack, 22, Gaone Morake, 20, Vincent Montsho, 19 and Tsholanang Podisi, 19, appeared in court early this week for ambushing, robbing and raping Zimbabwean visitors on May 4 last year.

The first 20 year-old complainant told the court in Francistown that on May 4 she left Bulawayo in the company of six other family members to buy groceries in Botswana.

She told the court that they met their fate when they decided to go to the bus rank to scout for accommodation.

'We approached Meshack who told us that he was a bus conductor and he would give us accommodation for five Pula per person at his house in Monarch," she told the court.

She said they got one room to sleep in. Later Meshack and his co-accused came back to rob them. They threatened to kill them, eventually raping all three.

"Meshack came back at around midnight and he had three other male friends with him and they pretended to look for something in the house. One of them then grabbed the phone that I was using to light and they started threatening us with knives and slashers," the girl said.

She told the shocked court audience of how the accused allegedly pulled her by the neck and pulled out her hair, while pushing her.

"He had a knife to my neck the whole time and he told me not to scream. When we passed the toilet I saw my sister in there with another guy and Meshack pulled me behind the toilet where he raped me," she said.

The second complainant, aged 18 said she was stripped naked in front of her parents and brothers before being dragged out to the toilet where Morake repeatedly raped her.

"They warned my brothers not to try anything or they would harm us. When I got back to the room I told my family what had happened and when we were sure that they had gone we tried to find a police station," she said. All the witnesses said that they would know the accused persons any day and they would not fold under cross-examination by the accused persons.

The accused persons allegedly robbed the victims of cell phones and money. They said that when they got to the police station they found that one of their brothers had been stabbed in the shoulder. The case continues.