Durban – A 27-year-old man was sentenced to two terms of life imprisonment by the uMlazi Regional Court for the double rape of a 13-year-old girl.
Provincial police spokesperson Colonel Robert Netshiunda, said the accused was found guilty on Friday for the double rape of a 13-year-old girl at an informal settlement in G Section in uMlazi. He was sentenced to two terms of life in prison.
Detailing the incident, Netshiunda said on September 5, 2022, the mother of a 13-year-old victim was furious to learn that her daughter did not go to school.
He said while chastising the child, the mother was shocked to discover that the child’s uncle had instructed her not to go to school.
“The crying child confessed to the mother that she was raped by her uncle on the night of 3 September 2022,” he said.
Netshiunda said the uncle had lured his niece to his shack where he gagged her mouth and raped her.
He said investigations also unearthed that the uncle had also raped the girl in a similar manner in 2021.
“The uMlazi Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit’s (FCS) meticulous investigations proved beyond reasonable doubt that the child was raped and (uncle) was arrested.
“After making several court appearances, (The accused) was removed from society and condemned to jail for the rest of his life,” he said.
In an unrelated incident, Netshiunda said 21-year-old Vusumuzi Mashaba Thabethe was handed a 46-year sentence by the Esikhaleni Regional Court following his conviction for raping two women in one night in Esikhaleni.
“On the evening of 2 September 2021, Thabethe, who was 19-years-old at the time, met a 21-year-old woman whom he had proposed love to a day before without any success. At knife-point he dragged the woman from Mabuyeni to the bushes where he raped her. The rape nightmare continued when he forcefully took her to a nearby stream where he continued raping her before letting her go,” he said.
According to Netshiunda, a few hours later that night, Thabethe broke into a house in the Madaka area and dragged a woman, 12 years his senior, to the bushes were he raped her at knife-point before robbing her of her cellphone.
He said investigations by the Esikhaleni FCS Unit positively pointed out Thabethe as the suspect and he was charged accordingly. He was also charged for kidnapping and house robbery.
“These sentences are a clear indication that the SAPS in KwaZulu-Natal, through the Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit, a specialised unit that probes crimes against women and children will continue to increase the heat on rapists and all those who perpetrate crimes against women and children, and ensure that rapists are removed from society, for good.”