The Pretoria Magistrate’s Court has sentenced a 64-year-old Mamelodi father to life in prison for repeatedly raping his daughter over a 10-year period.
The rape began when the victim was only nine years old in 2010 and continued until she was 19 years old in 2020, as was made clear in court.
The victim, whose identity is kept private, suffered the abuse while spending weekends and school breaks with her father, who shared custody of the child but was not her mother’s spouse.
The father, according to the court, tricked his daughter into thinking that the abuse was “normal in households” and said that she should not tell her mother because of her mother’s heart condition.
When the victim was sixteen years old in 2018, a condom broke during one of the assaults.
The father instructed her to monitor her menstrual cycle and, upon discovering her pregnancy, provided her with R1 500 to terminate the pregnancy.
Unabated, the abuse persisted.
Request for leniency
The case was discovered in 2021 when the victim, who was 19 at the time, confided in her boyfriend, thinking that since he was the only person she had ever had intimate relations with, her father’s behaviour was normal.
The mother confronted the victim after her boyfriend told her about the abuse out of shock, and on January 16, 2021, the victim reported the crime to the Mamelodi East police station.
The father was arrested the same day.
Regional court prosecutor Anton Burger presented strong evidence that led to the father’s conviction despite his not guilty plea and denial of the charges.
The father requested leniency during the sentencing process, pointing to his position as the provider for his wife, three other children, and two granddaughters.
This was strongly contested by Burger, who emphasised the father’s lack of regret, the intentionality of the abuse, and his betrayal of his parental responsibilities.
“He planned the sexual abuse, preparing her for it, and convincing her that it was normal,” Burger told the court.
Life overshadowed by trauma
Kgomotso Lodi, the court preparation officer, assisted the victim in giving a heartbreaking victim impact statement in which she described a life that was overshadowed by trauma.
She talked about how the ongoing abuse caused her to lose her adolescence, struggle with depression, and have low self-esteem.
When imposing the life sentence, Acting Regional Court Magistrate Pierre Wessels referred to South Africa’s violence against women and children as a pandemic.
Noting the father’s lack of regret, Wessels found no strong arguments for departing from the mandatory life sentence.
In addition to sending his two granddaughters to the children’s court for additional investigation, the court mandated that his name be added to the National Register for Sexual Offenders.
