By Lumka Mahanjana
NPA Regional Spokesperson
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) welcomes the sentence of 15 years direct imprisonment handed down by the Pretoria Magistrates’ Court to Mr X (38) from Mamelodi East, for the rape of his 25-year-old girlfriend.
He was further sentenced to 8 years direct imprisonment for assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
The court ordered that all sentences run concurrently with the 15 years direct imprisonment.
Furthermore, the court also ordered that he be declared unfit to possess a firearm.
On 01 December 2020, in the evening, Mr X received information from a friend that his girlfriend was with another man at a nearby shop.
Acting on the information, Mr X went to the shop, found her girlfriend standing alone and proceeded to assault and drag her on the street towards his place of residence in Mamelodi East, meters away from the shop. While dragging her, she ran to a nearby house and hid herself in the toilet outside.
When the owners of the house saw her, they requested her to leave and
thereafter she continued to walk with Mr X to his place of residence.
On arrival, Mr X pushed her inside his bedroom in the house, assaulted her and proceeded to rape her.
During the night, while they were sleeping Mr X began to rape her again. In the morning, the complainant called her mother who then came to fetch her from Mr X’s place of residence.
The following day a case was opened against Mr X, and he was arrested on 03 December 2020 at his place of residence.
In court, Mr X pleaded not guilty, stating that he never assaulted the complainant and that they had consensual sex.
However, state prosecutor Anton Burger, led compelling evidence which secured the conviction.
During sentencing proceedings Mr X, through his legal representative, asked the court not to impose the prescribed minimum sentence of life imprisonment citing that he is a first-time offender, he is remorseful and has been in custody after his bail was revoked in October 2023.
However, Burger strongly opposed this and asked the court to impose a sentence of life imprisonment.
He said, Mr X is convicted of very serious offences and that he is not remorseful because he still believes that he did not rape the complainant.
“Mr X portrayed extremely possessive behaviour towards the complainant which reflects that he believes he owns the complainant and is entitled to her body”, he added.
Burger also handed in a Victim Impact Statement (VIS) facilitated by Court Preparation Officer Kgomotso Lodi where the complainant expressed how the rape and assault has negatively impacted her mental health and emotions.
In delivering judgement, Magistrate Mrs Sheila Msibi agreed with the state that Mr X is convicted of serious offences that are prevalent in the courts jurisdiction and that his conduct was brutal in nature.
She added that being in a love relationship with the complainant did not give him the right of ownership to her body and that he humiliated her in public, stripping her off her right to dignity.
Furthermore, she said that it is undeniable that as a country we are facing a high volume of crime against women and children.
Moreover, she said that rape in the context of a relationship is not condemned however she found that there are substantial and compelling circumstances to deviate from imposing the prescribed minimum sentence of life imprisonment.
The NPA welcomes the sentence and hopes that it sends a strong message to society that such crimes of Gender Based Violence (GBV) will not be tolerated but rather prosecuted without fear, favour or prejudice.