A 19-year-old foreign national accused of raping a 12-year-old opted to abandon his bail application when he appeared in the Strand Magistrates’ Court on Friday 3 June.
Sam Sithole is facing a rape charge. He made his first court appearance on Friday 27 May. It is believed he lured the child into his shack on Wednesday 25 May before raping her. The Malawian national reportedly used the shack to sew clothes and as a barber shop.
During his second appearance on Friday incensed Lwandle and Nomzamo residents picketed outside the court. Brandishing placards denouncing the incident, residents sang and danced outside the court when the accused appeared.
They called for the law to take its course and that the accused remain in custody for the rest of his days.
The victim’s mother told City Vision she was “deeply hurt” about what had happened to her daughter.
The 27-year-old woman said she had last saw her child going out to play with her friends. “A woman from my street told me my child was sleeping with foreigners,” she said. “When I asked her about this she denied this. I asked her to take off her panty and I found it wet. I called an old woman in my street when evaluating her, and she saw something had happened to her.”
They then took the girl to Lwandle Police Station where they opened a case. She was later transferred to a medical facility for examination.
The SA National Civics Organisation Secretary’s (Sanco) Khunjulwa Mvukelwa urged victims of rape or any abuse to speak out and report cases to the police.
“We are here to show our support to the victim’s family and we are saying down with abuse of women and children,” she said. “This man needs to have his keys thrown away and spend the rest of his sentence behind bars.”
Mvukelwa believes such a sentence would serve as a deterrent to other would-be rapists and women abusers.
WO Joseph Swartbooi, Western Cape police spokesperson, said the Khayelitsha Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit was probing the circumstances surrounding two isolated incidents in Lwandle in which two minors aged 2 and 12 were victims of rape.
He said: “The offence is viewed in a serious light by the South African Police Service, and hence all reported cases are assigned to seasoned detectives. As a result of the sensitive nature of the investigation, this office has opted to be very discreet in communicating the progress of both cases.
“However, we can confirm two males, aged 45 and 20, had been arrested and detained. Both suspects in the isolated cases referred to in your enquiry made a court appearance in Strand Magistrates’ Court earlier today (Friday) on a charge of rape.”
The case was postponed to 8 July for further investigation.
