Byline: Nonjabuliso Nhlambo

25 January 2024

A 42-year old man appeared before the Bethal Magistrates Court on Thursday, 25 January 2024 after a rape case was reported and registered with Bethal Police.

It is alleged that the suspect is a 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 manged 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.

The accused covered the victims 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 drop 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 showed interest in what the victim wanted to tell him and 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 at home, her father started shouting at her asking why she walked home. He assaulted and threatened to kill her and the brother.

On January 04, 2024 the stepmother with the father came home with a pregnancy test kit where she 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 where 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 to the victim approached the victim and offer 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 of reporting the matter to the police.

The accused was remanded in custody for formal bail hearing on 07 January 2024.