Judge scoffs at rapist’s appeal

A 25-year-old man who claimed an elderly woman had initiated sex with him in the bushes has lost his appeal against his conviction and 10-year prison sentence.

Two judges of the High Court in Pretoria confirmed the conviction and sentence imposed on rapist Pelican Kubeka by a Witbank Magistrate in March 2015.

Kubeka’s victim, a 62-year-old mother of seven children, met him at a hiking spot in Witbank in 2011. The couple were chased away by taxi drivers.

Kubeka suggested going to another hiking spot and told her they were taking a shortcut through a secluded bushy area, but then tried to trip her and told her he wanted sex. When she told him she was old enough to be his grandmother, he raped her.

His victim said she did not report the incident immediately as she was burying one of her grandchildren and was preparing to attend the funeral.

She was hiking again eight days later and accepted a lift from a couple who stopped to pick up a male hiker who turned out to be Kubeka.

The victim started talking to Kubeka and then started crying, saying “this boy raped me”, but Kubeka said he did not know her. The couple drove to the police station with Kubeka and the victim, where she reported the rape.

Kubeka claimed his victim had initiated sex with him and even gave him a condom to use, although he admitted she had complained she was bleeding as she had not had sex for a long time.

The victim testified that she was now menstruating again at an advanced age and was urine incontinent.

Counsel for Kubeka criticised the victim for not reporting the incident immediately, but Judge Wendy Hughes said she could not find fault with the manner in which the magistrate had dealt with the delay.

The magistrate said the victim was a mourning grandmother who did not know the person who attacked her and also took into account that she was traumatised as a result of the death of her grandchild and her medical issues resulting from the rape.

Judge Hughes said Kubeka had actually corroborated the victim’s evidence without realizing it and her injuries were not indicative of sex with consent.

Kubeka suggested going to another hiking spot and told her they were taking a shortcut through a secluded bushy area, but then tried to trip her and told her he wanted sex.