An Eastern Cape man has been sentenced to life imprisonment in the Peddie Regional Court for raping his eight-year-old son.
The 54-year-old man was also convicted and sentenced to five years imprisonment for assault with the intent to do grievous bodily harm.
The rapist cannot be named to protect the victim.
The man lived in Mgababa village in Peddie with his son.
The court heard on May 31, 2023, the young boy was coming home from school and his father instructed him to collect wood nearby. Upon his return, his father chained him to a pole inside the house and raped him.
It was further revealed that after raping his son, the father locked him in the house and left.
The boy managed to untie himself from the pole and ran to the neighbour’s house, with the end of the chain still attached to his ankle. The neighbour alerted community members and the police were called.
The rapist father was arrested the following day while hiding at the house of a relative in Motherwell in Gqeberha, more than 200 kilometres from the scene of the crime.
The father remained in denial but was found guilty of the crimes he was charged with.
In his victim impact statement presented to the court, the boy said he never wanted to see his father again.
Delivering sentence, the magistrate agreed with the State that the father chained his son like an animal and further raped him, betraying the trust the boy had for him as a parent.
The court ordered the sentences to run concurrently and that the offender’s name be entered in the National Register for Sex Offenders.
Eastern Cape Director of Public Prosecutions, Barry Madolo welcomed the sentence and commended the investigator, prosecutor, court intermediary for ensuring that justice is served for the most vulnerable in society.
“The child suffered the worst abuse at the hands of the person who was supposed to protect him, and our courts must ensure that people such as this monster of a father are removed from the communities,” Madolo said.
robin.francke@iol.co.za
IOL