LOW’s CREEK – The call to have courts start handing down harsh sentences for rapists, was witnessed by the KaMashayane community, near Low’s Creek, when the Nelspruit Magistrate’s Court handed down a life imprisonment sentence to a child rapist.
Nhlanhla Surprise Shongwe (23) was found guilty on November 10 of raping a three-year-old.
The incident took place on October 6 last year. Shongwe was arrested the following day after the stepmother of the child, who can’t be named to protect her identity, reported the matter to the Low’s Creek Satellite Police Station. The child had complained about pains in her nether region when she was bathing her. According to her, in a statement she submitted to the police, every morning when she and her husband left for work they left the little girl with their 58-year-old female neighbour.
They would collect her after dark. Unfortunately, on the day of the attack, while the girl was playing with her friends, Shongwe called her and forcefully took her to his shack where he raped her.
The toddler told her stepmother that she screamed and fought the man, but nobody came to her rescue. He then threatened to kill her with a knife if she told anyone about what he had done to her.
Const Khethiwe Themba of Low’s Creek station welcomed the sentence. “Nothing can compare with what the toddler went through, but the good news is that finally the law enforcers came through for the victim and her family,” said Themba. The court also ordered that Shongwe’s name be added to the National Register for Sex Offenders and the National Child Protection Registry.
