The magistrate full of mercy for child rapists
She was 11 years old when she was raped by her father and not much older when she had to testify against him in court.
The child told the court how physically painful it was, and how her father threatened to whip her if she told her mom.
But she did tell and she was examined by a doctor the next day.
In her victim impact statement she said: “I was so excited to visit my father that day. I didn’t think anything bad would happen.
“My father did something I will never forget in my life.”
Her words had an impact on magistrate Kholeka Bodlani, who, during sentencing, noted the betrayal of the child by her own father.
But then she inferred that the mother may have been in court to support the accused because she loved him and her daughter.
Although there was no evidence that the man was not sober at the time of the attack, the magistrate inferred that he may have been drunk or drugged, “because the court does not understand what influenced his mind to commit such an offence”.
She said she must have “mercy on a loving father” and sentenced him to five years’ imprisonment wholly suspended for seven years.
In January and February 2011, 53-year-old Khombokwakhe Mkhize twice raped a 10-year-old girl in his hostel room. In her statement the girl said she was looking for a friend when Mkhize approached her, picked her up and took her inside.
“He kicked and threatened me after the rape. He told me he had killed his own children,” the little girl said.
On the second occasion, he grabbed her as she was returning home from the shop. He tied her up with rope and taped her mouth shut.
The rapes had had a visible effect on her, the magistrate said. The child had become mentally unstable and had to be enrolled at a special needs school. She had also been exposed to HIV because Mkhize had not used a condom.
But, said Bodlani, Mkhize’s own children would suffer if he went to prison for life and she “must have mercy on him”. She sentenced him to 10 years in jail, suspending half the sentence.