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A 13-year-old girl ran while naked, in pain and bleeding, down the corridors of the Pretoria Hotel seeking help after a 46-year-old man raped her and also attempted to rape her 11-year-old friend.
This is what the Pretoria magistrate’s court heard on Monday during the trial of Amos Khumalo.
Khumalo was arrested in November 2020 at the hotel and charged with the rape of two minor girls.
Khumalo smiled for the cameras during his court appearance on Monday, a stark contrast to the victims’ parents who were crying as gruesome details of the children’s ordeal were read out in court.
His lawyer read the pre-sentence report, penned by the probation officer and social worker Goodman Mabasa.
Evidence given by the investigating officer in the report stated: “The accused was the one who forced the victims into the car outside the home of the victim [who cannot be named]. He offered to buy them burgers”. Khumalo, before forcing the minors into a car and taking them to Nkomo Village shopping centre to buy KFC, had spent the afternoon with the grandmother of one of the girls.
Later in the evening, he booked a hotel room under the false pretence that he was their father.
The police said the 13-year-old reported that: “When they got to the hotel, he [Khumalo] ordered the victims to undress and raped them”.
The report details the victim bleeding and experiencing pain in her genitals. The child told the police that she managed to escape and sought help while Khumalo ordered the 11-year-old to bathe so he could rape her again.
According to the NPA, Khumalo tried to forcefully have sex with the 11-year-old but his penis did not penetrate. The NPA said this was contained in the medical reports. During the plea bargaining process, the NPA agreed Khumalo should be convicted of attempted rape due to the lack of penetration.
The 13-year-old was raped by Khumalo and he was convicted for this. “The child said that the accused threatened them with a gun. She went on to say that the accused never used a condom when he raped her.”
The report stated that a security officer at the hotel overheard Khumalo saying that he wanted to “break the virginity” of the girls. According to the police report, the security officer reported this to the hotel manager. By the time the manager arrived in the room, it was too late as the 13-year-old was already raped and had escaped.
“The accused was chasing the victim who was running away.”
Khumalo said he was drunk on the night of the rape. His lawyer asked the magistrate to sentence his client to 20 years, saying he took responsibility for the rape and that it was not severe as “someone who dragged their victim to the bush, stabbing them and raping them”.
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He further appealed that should Khumalo get a life sentence, he would only qualify for parole when he is 72 years old. However, the NPA’s Dru Ramsamy told the magistrate that a previously convicted rapist who raped a minor while out on parole deserved nothing less than a life sentence in prison.
“Their youth and innocence were ripped away by a man who was previously convicted of rape.
“A stupid mistake when drunk is not booking a hotel room and waking up with blood on your penis, the blood of innocence. That is what the accused has done to those victims.
“The penetration of an adult penis into a child leading to bleeding, is that not violence? How is that justified if the court has to deviate from the minimum sentence?
“When a rape of a minor occurs there are no qualifications, it is stipulated that it is life imprisonment.
“The minors will face the rest of their lives psychological trauma.”
She said Khumalo ruined not only the lives of the children but their families also.
Khumalo from Atteridgeville is a father of two girls. He was trained as a soldier by the SANDF in 1996. The following year his contract was not renewed after a case of murder was opened against him.
Khumalo’s sister described him as a “good person but his conduct changed when he drank alcohol”.
Judgment was reserved in the rape case and it will be delivered on December 6.
*Please note, this article has been amended.
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