NELSPRUIT – Justice slammed down hard on three rapists last week, as all were sentenced to life imprisonment in the Nelspruit Regional Court.
The first case was that of a 49-year-old man who was found guilty of raping his five year-old daughter and her seven year-old friend. He was sentenced on Thursday by magistrate Mr Willie Wilkens. The court heard how the man would fetch them from school, take them to his house and rape them.
The seven year-old told her grandmother what the man had done and she notified the police.
Prosecutor Ms Magda Marais said the second rapist, an uncle (42) of his victim (14), was found guilty on three counts of rape and was sentenced to three life sentences by magistrate Mr Roelf Smith.
She said the victim who had been left as an orphan, was left at the mercy of her uncle who would threaten her with a knife and that he would leave her homeless. Marais said he raped the victim three times, therefore Smith handed down three life sentences for each rape. The two rapists could not be identified as they were related to their victims.
The third was Nhlanhla Surprise Shongwe who raped a seven year-old girl on October 5, 2012 at Low’s Creek. Wilkens found him guilty of rape on Tuesday and sentenced him to life imprisonment.
Prosecutor Ms Elize du Plessis said the young girl was playing at a crèche with the caretaker's grandson that day. She said the children left the grounds and went to go fetch water near Shongwe’s house. She said that Shongwe grabbed the young girl and chased away the grandson, dragged her into his house and raped her.
The young girl afterwards ran to tell the caretaker of the crèche who did not report the crime or tell her mother.
But later that day, when the girl got home and her mother bathed her, she saw that her daughter had been raped and immediately reported the incident to the police.
“He still denied the incident after being found guilty and showed no remorse for what he had done”.
