A 46-year-old pastor from Good Shepherd Church has been convicted and sentenced to 55 years behind bars for numerous counts of rape of young members of the church.
Philane Masilela was found guilty by the KwaMhlanga regional court in Mpumalanga on Monday.
He was found guilty of four counts of rape and seven counts of sexual assault committed from 2012 to 2018.
The court heard that Masilela would touch and fiddle with his victims’ private parts under the pretext of preventing them from leading immoral lives.
He would tell them that he was praying for them.
He managed to convince his victims that he could see their future and had received instructions from God to pray for them in that manner.
He reportedly also told his victims that if they refused his advances, bad things would happen to them.
In court, Masilela pleaded not guilty and claimed that the youth consented.
State prosecutor Bianca Harmse led testimonies of seven victims, who related how Masilela quoted from the Bible and claimed that for them to be protected from being with the wrong women, he needed to pray for their private parts by touching or sucking them.
Some of the victims sobbed and became emotional while testifying.
The state submitted that Masilela abused his power as a pastor and used the victims’ faith in God and religion to break down any resistance they showed.
Magistrate Merlene Greyvenstein found Masilela to be a sexual predator.
The court found the acts of the accused to be disgusting and that he claimed to be a Christian, yet he saw nothing wrongdoing in touching or sucking the boys’ penises.
National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Monica Nyuswa said a pre-sentence report detailed that the victims were affected emotionally.
“Masilela has been sentenced to 10 years imprisonment on each of the four counts of rape and five years imprisonment on each of the seven counts of sexual assault,” said Nyuswa.
“The court ordered that four of the sexual assault sentences run concurrently with the rape charges, relating to the same victims. The accused was also declared unfit to possess a firearm.
“The NPA welcomes the sentence imposed on the accused and commends the prosecutor and the investigating officer for delivering justice to the victims.”
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