Mpumalangan man sentenced to life for child rape
The accused claimed that the minor victim seduced him and pleaded not guilty.
An elderly man (60) was sentenced to life imprisonment for raping a 13-year-old girl in Mayflower.
The conviction was passed down by the the Elukwatini Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday, June 24.
According to the National Prosecuting Authority’s (NPA) regional spokesperson, Monica Nyuswa, the convict assaulted the minor using a sjambok and raped her in 2019.
“The victim resided with her grandparents in the same yard as the man who repeatedly targeted her. In one occasion, he entered the victim’s bedroom wielding a sjambok demanding she becomes his second wife and bear him children. When she refused, he assaulted her with the sjambok and raped her,” Nyuswa said.
Nyuswa said the incident came to light when the girl missed her classes and the social workers from the school intervened.
“During their visit, the victim bravely disclosed the rape, prompting a police investigation that led to the man’s arrest. In court, he pleaded not guilty and claimed that the girl seduced him.”
Nyuswa said the court found the State’s witnesses reliable, rejecting the accused’s defences as baseless and affirming the gravity of his actions.
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The state prosecutor, Matladi Malapane, presented the victim’s testimony, the social worker’s report and a J88 medical report confirming the rape.
“Malapane emphasised the need for a strong message to the community that violence will not be tolerated, urging the court to impose the prescribed minimum sentence of life imprisonment under Section 51(1) of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 105 of 1997.”
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The court also ordered the man’s name to be included in the National Register for Sex Offenders and declared him unfit to possess a firearm and unsuitable to work with children.
