Dad nails NPA for daughter’s rape

Father’s vigilance secured a R6.8m state payout

REELING from the horrific rape of his 22-year-old daughter, a Pretoria father sneaked a peek at the police docket to find out a little more about the man arrested for the crime.

Armed with a name, he hired a private investigator and what he uncovered shocked him.

The suspect, Samuel Msiza, was out on bail for multiple rape and murder charges at the time, and had multiple murder convictions. He clearly was a threat to the public.

Outraged at the incompetence of the police and prosecutors, he helped his daughter launch a civil suit against the National Prosecuting Authority and the South African Police Service.

On September 1‚ the parties reached an agreement in which the NPA and the police accepted liability for the woman’s claim.

Last week in the High Court in Pretoria, Judge Bill Prinsloo ordered that they pay her R6.8million in compensation for the attack, which left her with serious physical and emotional scars.

“It was personal to me,” the father said this week. “It had become clear to me that both investigating officers and prosecutors were incompetent.”

The father, who cannot be named to protect the identity of his daughter, is a former public prosecutor and magistrate who now works in the private sector.

He found that Msiza had three pending rape charges and a separate charge of rape and murder against him when he was released on bail. “Both matters were dealt with separately and both investigating officers and the station commander [failed to] bring the two cases together.”

The prosecutor had also failed to oppose bail, set at R1 000. SEVEN Cape Town men appeared in the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court on Friday for the kidnapping and rape of a 13-year-old girl.

Western Cape police spokesman Captain FC van Wyk said the girl was walking along Robert Sobukwe Road last week when a man kidnapped her. She was “taken to a shack where she was repeatedly raped by him

“When it came to discovery, they failed to disclose the documents [of the two separate cases] and I caught them out.

“They were incompetent and didn’t do their jobs, I wanted them to pay,” he said.

His daughter was attacked on October 26 2011 after a meeting with her Bible study group at her Pretoria townhouse.

She was seeing off friends at the gate and left the door open. She had a shower and was preparing for bed when Msiza jumped out of a cupboard.

She was stabbed 22 times in the face, chest and hand. Left for dead, she managed to crawl out of the front door when she heard her neighbours arriving home. Doctors had to remove the metal tip of a knife from her skull.

Deeply religious, she was a virgin at the time.

“The scarring wasn’t as bad for me as the rape. I’m a Christian and believe you should keep yourself for your husband,” the woman said this week.

“Once he left and I managed to get myself out of the house when the neighbours arrived, I realised I was going to be OK. My dad arrived at the trauma unit and he was freaked out. I said: Prosecuting Authority spokesman in the Western Cape, said more men were involved. “There were 10 men who raped the girl and she has positively identified the seven who have been arrested.”

Last week, the High Court in Cape Town sentenced Mthunzi Hlomane, the “UCT rapist”, to nine life terms for rape. — ‘Dad, I’m going to be OK.’ That’s all I remember. Nobody thought I would make it.”

Msiza was sentenced to life in prison in 2012 for the attack.

Now 27 and a quantity surveyor, the woman said she was happy her case had gone public.

“I don’t think most people would know that they had rights. If it wasn’t for my dad, I wouldn’t have known that I even had a case. And civil cases are expensive, that’s why people might not even consider it. It was a big risk for us, we needed to prove they were negligent.”

Her father agreed: “How many of those cases fall through the cracks?”

The woman said it had been hard to navigate through multiple surgeries and depression.

“I made a decision I wasn’t going to let this get me under. That guy messed up my life for a little bit, [but] wasn’t going to mess up my future.”

Johannesburg-based attorney June Marks said: “The police, prosecutors and even magistrates should consider the effects of their decisions, as they will be held liable for their actions and the harm inflicted by a less than cautious approach.”