Galeshewe Magistrate court Picture :Olebogeng Molale
A man who is accused of raping his three daughters appeared before the Galeshewe magistrate court in Kimberly on Monday. The accused was arrested on Friday last week after one of her daughters alerted a member of a crime fighting community group, known as Tlhasela Bosinye, about how she had been raped by her father since she was nine-years old. It had continued, with the last incident having taken place the day before. The case against the suspect was postponed for further investigations.
The 21-year-old victim says it all started after their father chased their mother away in 2010. Soon after that, the father started demanding to sleep with her, and he even told her that the ancestors said that he should have sexual intercourse with her as he did not have a wife and for them to bless her and give her luck at school.
“My father said to me, I should sleep him because that was a direction from the ancestors, and I could not refuse as I was a child and very scared of my father as an elder. But I could not let this continue because he was now sleeping with my two young sisters. My sisters are very young, the other one is 18 and the other one is 14, so I just had to speak out,” she said.
The case was attended by members of the community, the ANC women’s league in the Frances Baard region, ANC youth league and Tlhasela Bosinye.
Yolanda Slade, representing the ANC women's league, said that they will continue to picket outside the court to oppose bail against the suspect, she said they will give support to the victims and called on the National Prosecution Authority to make sure that the suspect gets a life sentence for the crimes he committed.
Thuso Masito, who is the communications officer of Tlhasela Bosinye, said they welcome the postponement of the case and called for the protection of the victims, saying that they have received reports that the victims had been threatened by some people who are close to the suspect.
“We welcome the postponement of this case until September 27, 2022, we want the police to add more charges of intimidation as we have received reports that there are people who are threatening the three victims, especially the older one. The police should speed up their investigations in this case because the perpetrator is facing very serious charges and he should not be given any bail”
