A failed appeal against a life sentence has exposed the horrific birthday rape ordeal of a seven-year-old girl who was subsequently punished, twice, by her grandmother over the incident.
The man, now aged 65, was convicted of rape and sentenced to the prescribed minimum life behind bars by the regional court in Mitchells Plain. He appealed at the high court in Cape Town, questioning the reliability of testimony by the child and the state's failure to call a social worker.
The child was raped in March 2016. It took seven years before she testified in the trial about accompanying the man on a train to Mitchells Plain to buy a birthday cake.
“He assured her her grandmother, with whom she lived, had permitted him to take her along. He purchased the cake. He also bought food and drinks for them to consume. The appellant then led the minor to a secluded bush where he raped her. Seven years had elapsed before the minor testified,” read the judgment by acting judge Ajay Bhoopchand. Judge Rosheni Allie concurred.
The child was instructed not to tell anyone what happened. Upon arriving home, she was punished by her grandmother for accompanying the man without her permission due to his “inappropriate interest in women”. Fearing another beating, the child kept quiet about the rape.
When news about the incident trickled through to the grandmother, the child was taken to a social worker and clinic for an examination which found evidence of vaginal and anal penetration. The girl was punished a second time by her grandmother for not speaking out earlier about the rape.
The man testified his wife gave him money to buy the child a cake, which they did along with a pie and drink which they shared. He denied there were any bushes near the shop and said they returned home to celebrate the birthday.
He denied committing rape but could not explain why the child would lie about being raped. He questioned the credibility of her evidence.
The court found the minor’s evidence was clear, satisfactory and consistent with the probabilities. Her evidence was supported by the grandmother’s statement and the medical evidence.
— Court judgment
“The court found the minor’s evidence was clear, satisfactory and consistent with the probabilities. Her evidence was supported by the grandmother’s statement and the medical evidence. Her story was not something she could readily make up. The minor’s testimony that her grandmother beat her was corroborated in the latter's statement,” reads the judgment handed down on Tuesday.
“The appellant had lured the minor from home with the promise of a birthday cake. The minor was excited about her birthday and had pie and drinks with the appellant. There was no reason for her to implicate the appellant for raping her. The appellant’s version was so far removed from the probabilities that it could not reasonably possibly have been true and was rejected by the regional magistrate.
“The assessment of the minor’s testimony from the record indicated she could distinguish right from wrong. She asked to be taken home when the appellant began molesting her. She was even able to distinguish right from wrong when she withheld information about the rape from her grandmother fearing she would be punished for telling the truth while knowing that a wrong was perpetrated upon her. The regional magistrate lauded the minor’s recall of an incident that occurred seven years before her testimony,” it reads.
The higher court said it could not fault the conviction handed down by the regional magistrate who had applied the necessary cautions to single witnesses and children’s testimony.
The court heard the man had a child of his own, grandchildren and his health was deteriorating.
The state presented the child's victim impact statement to court, comprising a “simple hand-drawn image of two people on grass in a jagged circle with the overhead sun. The expressions captured on the faces of the two people and the sun are conspicuous. The older male is smiling while the younger female is sad, as the smiling sun looks away. The regional magistrate described the image as haunting in the circumstances.”
The high court said the man betrayed the child's trust in a reprehensible manner: “Instead of showering the minor with love, affection and protection, he raped her and left her with injuries and a genital infection.”
The man was sentenced in March 2024 by the regional magistrate who ordered his name be included in the national register for sex offenders, he be declared unsuitable to work with children and unfit to possess a firearm.
The child's victim impact statement was made when she was eight. “Art, in its quiet simplicity, screams truths louder than words do. A defenceless child trapped in an unbroken ring, her face etched in sad sorrow, used and discarded like some inanimate thing, his, a shameless smirk, a serpent’s sting. A child lost beneath a smiling sun, trust betrayed and innocence undone. The unfathomable emotional and psychological sequelae and the developmental and learning impediments cannot be underestimated. The consequences for a rape victim are severe and permanent,” reads the judgment.
The acting judge had harsh criticism for how long it took the matter to get to trial in the regional court. “The rape occurred [in] March 2016. The trial in this matter commenced in 2023. Seven years had elapsed before the minor gave evidence even though the appellant was arrested about two months after the rape. The minor was expected to remember the minutiae of an incident which would find more mature brains wanting. This undue delay is unsatisfactory and is deprecated.”
The man's appeal against conviction and sentence was dismissed.
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