Durban — A woman whose brother raped her 10-year-old granddaughter is hoping that the Ntuzuma Magistrate’s Court will sentence him to life imprisonment during sentencing next week.
The 42-year-old man, recently convicted, committed the assault in 2022 while the child’s grandmother and great-grandmother slept in the next room.
“My brother never loved me, in 2008 he stabbed my child with a broomstick and he raped my grandchild to hurt me,” said the woman.
She said their mother, who already had cancer, was diagnosed with diabetes in 2022 and her condition has deteriorated.
“It was for this reason that we reached out to our church for a prayer. Everyone stayed up late for the prayer and the child at some point during the prayer went to sleep on my brother’s bed.
“We didn’t wake her up, we let her sleep because we had no fear that something like this would happen. My brother’s room is close to my mother’s room where my sister and I slept on the floor that night while mom was on the bed.”
She said the morning after she noticed that her brother was tense but paid him no mind.
“In the days that followed after that my mom’s health became better and then one day he accused my child of stealing R2. He beat the child so badly for this, we were all there.
“I thought he was going to kill my child. As he was beating him, he uttered the words that he wanted the child’s parents to call the police and arrest him this time.
“He beat the child till he managed to escape. The next day we got a call from the child’s school that she had reported that she was raped on the night that the congregants had been at our home.”
She explained how the family tried to contain the situation so as to not alert her brother that the child had reported the rape.
“I took all the kids to my house so that none of them let it slip, this was while my daughter had gone to the police station with her younger sister and a family friend. The police arrived in the wee hours of the morning and arrested my brother. Soon after his arrest mom died. I think having to deal with the fact that her child had raped her great-grandchild was all too much for her.”
The woman said the family had not known that her brother had been granted bail but while preparing for the funeral he was seen.
“We were sitting in the car waiting for my child to come back from the shop. He came running to the car, scared, and said he had seen my brother. We didn’t even know that he applied for bail, my brother is unemployed and we found out that a family friend and my younger sister helped him with his bail.”
She explained how since then there has been a rift in the family as her sister and others supported her brother wanting the child to withdraw the case.
“As a woman, my sister has girl children, I don’t understand why she would do that. My sister and those on her side. After mom’s death in October 2022, that December we were all home when a hitman came; my brother had asked a neighbour for help to execute this hit on me. I’m glad that he has been convicted.”
The man’s violent nature was presented to the court through evidence that in 2001 he stabbed everyone in the house.
“I ran and hid when I saw him take out the knife. My sister climbed out the window – everyone else in the house sustained stab wounds. He was sentenced to one year for this.”
Thokozani Khumalo of Ubambiswano Community Organisation working with child victims of rape, echoed the woman’s sentiments that the accused deserved to be sentenced to life to warn like-minded people.
“I attended the trial to the finish, I applaud the prosecution for how the case was handled in securing a conviction and giving us justice.”
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Daily News