A man from Saulsville outside Pretoria received a hefty jail term for raping a girl (12), while the victim’s grandmother (62) is currently in court for failing to report the rape to the police.

The Atteridgeville Magistrate’s Court outside Pretoria sentenced the 29-year-old man to 22 years direct imprisonment for the crimes committed in 2019. He has been in custody since his arrest in 2020.

NPA spokesperson Lumka Mahanjana explains that at the time of the offences, the child was staying with her grandmother in a house in Saulsville, while the man, who at the time was in a relationship with the victim’s aunt, stayed in the backrooms within the same yard.

In June 2019, in the evening when the girl was closing the gate like her grandmother asked, the man saw her and dragged her to the outside toilet and raped her.

“In the morning, the child reported the matter to the grandmother, who told her to go to the clinic and school,” says Mahanjana.

Mahanjana says when the minor got to school, she told her friend what had happened.

“The friend, together with the victim, went back to the grandmother after school and told her what the victim had shared with her, but the grandmother chased the friend away.

“Two weeks later, when the victim was washing dishes in the kitchen when the man came in and sexually assaulted her again.”

She says in December 2019, during the school holidays when the child was reunited with her mother, the mother noticed a change in her child’s behaviour. Upon questioning the girl, she told the mother what had happened.

“The mother reported the matter to the police. The man was arrested on January 8, 2020 and has been in custody since then.

He pleaded not guilty to the charges against him. The court preparation officer, Kopano Motshwane, prepared the child to stand trial and testify in court. She testified using the intermediary services.”

Mahanjana says prosecutor Paulina Mochaka asked the court to recall what the victim went through when imposing a sentence.

“He was an uncle to the child but failed to protect her; instead, he saw her as a suitable candidate to satisfy himself sexually.”

Magistrate Allen Cowan agreed with the state that the offence was gruesome, despicable and disgusting.

“He preyed on the child and is still refusing to take responsibility for what he did, and the grandmother also did not protect the child; she did nothing and she too deserves to be in jail.”

Cowan ordered that Mr X’s name be added to the national register for sexual offenders and declared him unfit to possess a firearm.

Mahanjana says the 62-year-old grandmother was summoned to appear on March 19, 2021, facing a charge of failure to report the rape of a minor.

She will appear in court again on July 20.