Man on parole guilty of rape

A MAN sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment for rape in 2007 and later released on parole, was on Friday found guilty by the East London High Court for raping a teenager five times.

Luvuyo Zazi, 38, pleaded not guilty and claimed the sexual intercourse was consensual. DNA tests linked him to the rape. According to the state, in October 2014 Zazi had sent the 16-year-old girl to a shop to buy goods.

On her return, he told her to put the items inside his shack. He then locked the door, placed a knife to her neck and threatened to kill her.

The girl hit him, the knife fell to the floor, and he then pushed her onto his bed.

He then forced a cloth into her mouth and tied one of her arms to the headboard.

The teenager fought back and Zazi then tied her other arm to the headboard and undressed her.

Before raping her, Zazi smoked drugs from a bottle head.

He raped her twice more before falling asleep next to her. He raped her twice again the next morning.

While Judge Igna Stretch handed down her judgment, Zazi stared blankly at her from the accused’s dock.

The young teenage girl, accompanied by her mother, sat in the gallery with her head bowed, crying.

Stretch postponed the matter to October 9 for sentencing.

After the judgment, the victim told the Daily Dispatch how being in court had opened up old wounds.

“When the judge repeated the evidence I had flashbacks of what happened that day and it is a painful memory. “I am trying to cope but it is hard,” she said. In evidence before court it was stated that the teenager had dropped out of school because of being teased by other pupils over the rape.

“I am going back to school next year and unfortunately I will have to repeat Grade 9 even though I should be in Grade 11. Education is still important to me so I will go back,” she said.

Her mother said she never thought Zazi would do something to hurt her daughter.

“He was so close to the family that we thought in times of trouble we could run to him for help, unaware that he had been lusting after my daughter,” the mother said. —