Protesters vow to stop bail for child rape accused

Around 50 Joe Slovo Park residents protested outside the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court last Thursday to oppose the granting of bail to a 61-year-old man accused of raping three girls, aged 6, 7 and 8, a few weeks ago.

Community leader Zanele Lusithi said they had already been to two of the accused’s court appearances and they would continue to protest at further appearances.

“We don’t want him to ever do this to anyone again. If he gets bail, he might not come back here, sure, however he would be a serious threat to children in any other community he chooses to live in,” she said.

“This hurts us as a community. Whenever I see the children this thing happened to, tears fill my eyes. We trusted this man because he always seemed so nice and would be friendly to everyone including the children in our community. We feel deeply betrayed.”

Ms Lusithi claimed the accused had threatened to kill the children and their families if they spoke out.

Street committee member Whitey Yoyo said the accused had seemed very trustworthy.

“I honestly wouldn’t have believed this, but these three children wouldn’t lie about this. I’m glad I wasn’t around when the community heard the news because I would have snapped, and we would have probably hurt him really bad. However, those that had heard the news had waited for the suspect to come back from work. They confronted him, beat him up and then took him to the police station,” he said.

The mother of the 8-year-old girl said had been about to run some errands on Wednesday October 4 when some children had come rushing to her door.

“My daughter was one of these kids at my door and she was crying. One of the children, a 13-year-old girl, told my daughter to speak. I couldn’t believe the story I was told by these children. My daughter told me that a few days prior, on the Monday, the suspect had lured her to his house promising sweets and things. Not long after she had arrived, she said that he inserted his finger in her private parts and after that inserted his ‘thing’ inside her. I asked why she hadn’t told me, and she said he threatened to kill her and her family. I asked the two younger girls and they told their story.”

The woman said the other two girls claimed they had been raped by the man the following day.

The mother of the 7-year-old said: “All the kids in the community like him. We have a suspicion that this isn’t the first time he has done this. Things are coming to light that he would only want the female kids in the community to come to his house, where he would ask them to help him with small chores in exchange for sweets and other goodies. No one suspected a thing.”

Doctors had confirmed sexual penetration of the three girls, she added.

The protesters said they would return to the court again this Thursday when the accused was due to appear again for a further bail application.

Milnerton SAPS confirmed last week that a 61-year-old man had been arrested on a charge of rape and was being held at Pollsmoor (“Man accused of raping children,” Tabletalk, October 18), but this week they did not respond by deadline when asked for an update on the case.