Byline: Refeloe Letsoisa
11 April 2025
A 25-year-old male from Matsulu was convicted and sentenced to 18 years of direct imprisonment for oral sexual violence of a nine-year-old minor boy by the Nelspruit Sexual Offences Court. The accused’s name will be withheld from the statement to protect the victim from secondary victimization. In the early morning of 17 March 2022, the victim was on his way to school when he passed the accused’s place.
The accused lured the victim to his house under the pretence that he wanted to give him a face mask. The accused instructed the victim to take off his clothes. When he realized that the victim was a boy, he inserted his private part into the mouth of the victim until he released his semens. The accused then instructed the victim to swallow the semen, and some of it fell on the victim’s school jersey.
The victim went home, crying, and met someone who asked him what had happened. The victim told him about the ordeal. The man accompanied the victim home and informed the parents, who reported the matter to the police, and the accused was arrested.
In court, the accused denied the allegations and insisted that he was falsely implicated. In his defence, the accused told the court that the victim’s family got his semen from a used condom in his dustbin and smeared it on the victim’s school jersey. State Prosecutor Jones presented compelling evidence from the victim, who testified using intermediary services. The report witnesses also testified and corroborated the version of the victim. The State further presented DNA evidence found on the victims’ school jerseys linking the accused to the offence. The court found the evidence of state witnesses reliable and rejected the accused’s version.
In aggravation of the sentence, Prosecutor Leann Jones argued for the prescribed minimum sentence of life to be imposed on the accused, emphasising that the accused’s predatory behaviour warranted a strong societal message. Magistrate Vanessa Joubert found substantial and compelling circumstances justifying deviation from the ordained sentence and sentenced the accused to 18 years’ direct imprisonment. The court also declared him unfit to possess a firearm and ordered his name entered into the National Register for Sexual Offenders.
This sentence reflects the criminal justice system’s firm stance against gender-based violence. Sexual violence violates victims’ constitutional rights to dignity and privacy while undermining societal trust. The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) remains steadfast in prosecuting such cases to deliver justice and support all victims.
