The Seshego Regional Court has convicted and handed down two life sentences to a 52-year-old Limpopo man who raped his stepdaughter on different occasions.
The court heard that the stepfather - whose name is withheld to protect the identity of his 12-year-old stepdaughter - repeatedly raped the girl in November 2019 in the absence of her mother.
One day, in January 2020, the 52-year-old man was wrestling with the young girl, about to rape her, when the child’s mother caught him.
“The court heard that on January 6, 2020, at about 8.30am, the mother of the victim found the accused red-handed, tussling with the victim, trying to rape her while she wrapped herself with a towel as she was about to bath,” Limpopo police spokesperson, Colonel Malesela Ledwaba said.
“The victim further revealed the ordeal of two previous incidents of rape that occurred in the year 2019 and the victim had kept it secret as she was threatened that if she reveals, she would be killed by the accused.”
A case of rape was then opened at the Seshego police station.
The matter was transferred to the Family Violence Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit for further investigation. The docket was assigned to Detective Sergeant Mmakwena Ngwepe.
“The accused was granted bail after he handed himself to the police following the successful manhunt for him from his place of employment,” said Ledwaba.
Provincial commissioner of police Limpopo, Lieutenant General Thembi Hadebe has welcomed the court outcome, adding that it will serve as a deterrent to other would-be rapists.
The court has ordered that the details of the stepfather be endorsed in the national register for sexual offenders. He was also declared unfit to possess a firearm.
Last month, IOL reported that 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 his daughter — 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.
IOL