The appearance of a 42-year-old man at Bethal Magistrates Court on Tuesday 09 January 2024 came after he was arrested by the investigating team comprising Sergeant Mzwandile Nkambule, Sergeant Bheki Maphanga and Constable Esther Malaza from the FCS Unit in Secunda after a rape case was reported and registered with Bethal Police for investigation.
It is alleged that the suspect is the biological father of the victim aged 13 years.
It is further alleged that the victim started to stay with her father and brother in January 2023. During September 2023 the victim was asleep in her room at night when the father entered her room and covered her face with his hand.
After covering her face with his hand, she managed to turn around to uncover her face and saw her father naked. He then pulled up her night-dress and took off her panty where he started raping her. He covered her mouth to prevent her from making noise or crying for help. He then went out of her room, after finishing with his deed, to his room and played music from his sound system.
The victim went to the bathroom and locked herself until morning. She never told her brother about what her father did. She prepared for school and the suspect took her to school and dropped her by the school gate without uttering a word.
Meanwhile, at school, the victim wanted to tell her teacher about the incident, but the teacher did not pay any attention or show interest in what the victim wanted to tell him, after school, while she was about to go home, she realized that her father did not give her transport money and she decided to walk home.
She continued walking home and when she arrived home, her father started shouting at her asking why she walked home. He assaulted and threatened to kill her and her brother.
On January 04, 2024, the stepmother with the father came home with a pregnancy test kit where the victim was tested, and she was informed that she was pregnant. He then threatened to kill the victim should she tell anyone about her pregnancy.
Later the day after she was tested for pregnancy, the stepmother approached the victim to ask her about the pregnancy and that’s when the victim started telling her everything.
The stepmother, after what she heard from the victim decided to go to KwaZulu Natal to personally inform the biological mother of the victim about the condition of her child(victim).
The suspect, who is the father of the victim approached the victim and offered her money so that she could not tell anyone, but she refused to take it.
Her stepmother returned from KwaZulu Natal with the biological mother and grandmothers of the victim to address the matter and that’s where they concluded reporting the matter to the police.
The accused, (name is withheld to protect the victim) appeared at Bethal Magistrates Court and was remanded in custody for formal bail application on Friday 19 January 2024.
