Granny accused of raping her own granddaughter
A grandmother (65) appeared in the Regional Magistrate's Court yesterday on charges of rape, conspiracy to commit rape and the attempted murder of her seven-year-old granddaughter.
NELSPRUIT – The crime against a young girl by her own gradnmother was reported on December 12, 2008 at KaNyamazane. The mother spoke to Lowvelder about what had happened to her daughter.
“It was at about 20:00 when I got home, that I found my mother’s husband with his pants down around his knees in the passage of the house. I asked him where my daughter was and then I looked in the room and found her in her nightie with her panties off. She screamed when she saw me.”
She said the man and her mother had repeatedly threatened her daughter that if she told anyone, they would kill her.
Her daughter told her that the grandmother had kept watch at the door while the man had raped her repeatedly whenever she came home from school.
“I was told she even used to keep watch at the window as the house was situated on a busy road.
“I have cut ties with my mother completely, she was always cold to me and seemed to hate me when I was growing up.”
The woman broke down in tears as she said her daughter was now HIV positive. “She never had it as a baby, and I don’t have it but now she does. This has changed our lives forever.”
The man, who was a co-accused, died last year.
The trial was postponed to May 22 for the victim to testify.
The grandmother is out on warning.
