Rapist’s bid to have life sentence reduced fails

A 21-YEAR-OLD man has failed in his high court bid to reduce his life sentence for twice raping a 12year-old child.

In 2013, Ziphozihle Dyakala dragged the child, who was kicking and screaming, from outside a tavern in Adelaide, Eastern Cape, to his home. At one point he stopped and beat her with a stick to silence her. When she fell down, he dragged her along a gravel pavement.

He raped her at his home and then kept her with him for the night and raped her again before chasing her away with a warning that she must never tell anyone about the incident.

It was submitted to a full bench of the Grahamstown High Court that the court had erred in handing down a life sentence as his personal circumstances, including his relative youth, amounted to substantial and compelling circumstances justifying a lesser sentence. It was also argued that his moral blameworthiness was diminished by virtue of his deprived upbringing in a dysfunctional and lawless society.

But Judge Jeremy Pickering, with judges Dayalin Chetty and Judith Roberson agreeing, said the aggravating circumstances of the case far outweighed his personal circumstances.

Pickering said the minimum sentence for life imprisonment was applicable on both the grounds that the girl was under the age of 16 years at the time and that she was raped more than once.

“[Dyakala’s] actions on the night in question were despicable,” said Pickering. He had abducted an innocent and defenceless child, assaulted her with a stick when she resisted; dragged her along a gravel pavement and then raped her.

“This must have been a terrifying and humiliating ordeal for the young complainant.”

He had then raped her a second time later on in the night.

A clinical psychologist found that her behaviour and emotional state since the incident suggested the child had been severely traumatised and that the rape had affected her significantly.

Pickering said any sentence less than life would be inadequate and disproportionate to the gravity of the offence.