WARNING: GRAPHIC DETAILS
The Alexandra Magistrate’s Court in Gauteng has sentenced a 40-year-old Zimbabwean rapist to life imprisonment after he pleaded guilty to raping his 17-year-old biological daughter.
The father, whose name is withheld to protect the victim, raped the teenage girl for the first time in May 2022, and the ordeal continued until January this year.
Gauteng spokesperson for the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) Phindi Mjonondwane, said the man called his daughter, who was based in Zimbabwe, to come to South Africa to assist her aunt, who had a newborn baby.
"After realising that she was not treated well at her aunt’s place, she (the girl) called her father to come and fetch her. On her first night at her father’s place, the father ordered her to share a bed with him," Mjonondwane said.
"The father asked her if she was still a virgin, and she replied in the affirmative. He then insisted that he wanted to check if she was telling the truth, and he proceeded to insert his fingers into her private parts, and later penetrated her without using protection," she said.
During their stay, the daughter would sometimes sleep on the floor while her father slept with her stepmother on the bed.
"But he would step down to the floor and rape her in the presence of the stepmother. However, the stepmother said she did not see or hear anything.
"When she fell pregnant, her aunt questioned her about who fathered the baby, and that is when she reported that her father was raping her. She also told her that her father forced her to frame any boy as the father of her unborn child,” said Mjonondwane.
When the teenager’s uncle heard the news, he then assisted the victimised girl in opening a case at the Alexandra police station in January 2023.
In court, control prosecutor Percy Ramushu argued that the father, being in a position of authority and being the one to take care of the child as the Constitution provides, violated the same Constitution.
Ramushu submitted that what made the situation worse was the fact that the teenager was violated at home, a place where she was supposed to be safe.
He further stated that there is no other sentence suitable for the father besides a life sentence.
Meanwhile, the NPA has welcomed the sentence and applauded Ramushu "for ensuring that justice is served and that the father receives the appropriate sentence for sexually abusing his daughter".
Last year, Naphuno Magistrate’s Court, under Maake policing area in Limpopo, sentenced a 35-year-old man to an effective 18 years in jail for raping his 10-year-old biological daughter at Makgaung village, at Ga-Sekororo.
The name of the rapist father is also withheld to protect the minor victim.
"According to the police report, on December 2, 2019 at about 5am, the mother of the victim left her in the company of her father at home to go wash the clothes at a nearby house. When she returned to fetch the other clothes at home, the mother found both her daughter and father naked inside a one-roomed house," Limpopo provincial police spokesperson Colonel Malesela Ledwaba said at the time.
"The mother inquired what was going on, but the father denied having sexual intercourse with the child. She immediately rushed her 10-year-old daughter to Sekororo Hospital for medical examination, and it was later discovered that the child was raped by her father," Ledwaba said.
The following day, a rape case was opened at Maake police station and the father was immediately arrested.
"The case was transferred to Tzaneen Family Violence and Child Protection Unit (FCS) for further investigations, and the accused was later granted bail after numerous court appearances.
“On November 22, 2022, the accused was convicted for rape of a minor girl and handed an 18-year imprisonment (term) imposed by the Naphuno magistrate on Wednesday, November 30, 2022,” Ledwaba said.
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