Parents have the responsibility to provide, to care and to protect their children from harm.
But a Pretoria man has been convicted for raping his own 11-month-old daughter while the mother was helping a neighbour cook for a ceremony.
It is the State’s case that the father and the mother of the baby were in a love relationship.
On 30 April 2023, in the evening while the couple was in their home, the neighbour came and asked the mother of the child to help her cook since she was having an overnight ceremony. The mother then left the baby with the father.
“The following day in the early hours of the morning while the mother was still assisting the neighbour, she saw her partner on the streets. When she asked about the whereabouts of the baby, he told her that he had left the baby sleeping. They then walked back to the house together where the mother found the baby lying on her chest with her back raised. When the mother touched the child to change her diaper she began to cry. As the mother was changing the diaper, she noticed that the baby's private parts were swollen and there was semen on the diaper,” the court heard.
She then told the father that the child was raped, and they should take her to the clinic. However, the father suggested that they take the baby to a traditional healer who is a neighbour.
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Evidence in court revealed that during the consultation with the traditional healer, the father confessed to raping the child. That is when the traditional healer advised them to seek medical assistance as he could not help them any further.
When they returned back home from the traditional healer, the man threatened the mother with a knife and ordered her not to take the child to the clinic as this will attract attention from the community.
The following day, the mother went to Lipompo pretending to visit her other child but instead took the baby to a clinic in Venda but was told to return to Pretoria and report the case.
After arriving back in Pretoria on 4 May 2023, she reported the case to the police and later that day, the father was arrested at his place of residence and has been in custody since.
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In court, the man pleaded not guilty to all charges, and gave a plea explanation stating that on the day of the incident, he had inserted his thumb in the baby’s private part while bathing her to remove soil particles which were there as a result of her playing outside.
However, prosecutor Adv Vongani Khosa, argued that the father indeed sexually penetrated his baby because semen was visible. The court agreed with the state and rejected the man’s version because it was not consistent with the presence of semen and that the state was able to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt.
The case has been postponed to 6 March 2024 for sentence proceedings.
