No petrol to find missing daughter, mom tells court

THE mother of a teenage girl who laid a rape complaint after Buffalo City Metro’s (BCM) annual switching on of lights ceremony in 2014 said she did not go looking for her daughter because she did not have petrol.

The woman, who cannot be named because it would identify her daughter, was testifying in the East London Regional Court yesterday.

Sivenathi White and Phuwelo MaAfrika, represented by Ntsikelelo Manyisane and Sivuyile Mnyute, pleaded not guilty to the rape charge.

The woman testified yesterday that she did not have money and borrowed R200 so her daughter could go to the lights ceremony.

She said at 1am she phoned one of her daughter’s friends to find out where they were but the friend said they had come back without the teen.

The woman had earlier testified that she had seen one of the accused at her house after the event and she thought he wanted to break into her car.

“I called out to him and he said he was looking for my daughter and I invited him into the house.

“Once inside the house he confessed that he was there when my daughter was raped.

“He said he did not rape her because he loved her,” the mother testified.

She said that while at her house White confessed he and his friends looked for her daughter the whole day as they wanted to kill her in order to avoid standing trial for rape.

Yesterday the matter was postponed after their attorneys asked for the charges to be dropped, arguing their clients had no case to answer.

Olivier will give his decision on the application today. —