Outage delays sentencing of child traffickers and rapist

An Eskom blackout delayed the sentencing of four Whittlesea women who were found guilty of trafficking a 12-year-old girl in 2016 and a businessman who raped the child.

The outage struck as the packed Komani regional court sat waiting.

l All five accused were sobbing uncontrollably.

In August, magistrate Nomsami Mshunqane found Xolelwa Garhishe, Yolanda Klaas, Zintle Tom and Nwabisa Kaziwa, guilty of trafficking in people for sexual purposes and benefiting from sexual exploitation of a child.

Businessman Harun Mohammed was found guilty of raping the child.

Garhishe was wearing a brown beanie and a navy jacket, Klaas wore a black jacket and blue T-shirt, Tom wore braids and a navy jacket, and Kaziwa wore a black beanie and black jacket.

Mohammed wore his traditional grey hoodie.

,Members of the Nonzwakazi Methodist Church, in black, social workers and women’s rights organisations came in numbers to support the victim.

The victim and her mother were sitting in the front row of the gallery.

The case was delayed by three hours as the load-shedding started at 11am, forcing the case to be postponed to 2pm. Later it was postponed to Friday.

Defence attorney Mkhangeli Nkqayana called for the court to deviate from the minimum sentence, saying the accused had been young when they committed the offence.

“They are first offenders, they showed remorse and they have been in custody since 2016. They did not know the seriousness of the case when they committed the crime,” he said.

He said Mohammed had two children and was assisting his uncle in running his shops.

“Since his arrest, his uncle’s shops had to close. He came to SA because of political and religious issues in Bangladesh and was in the process of applying for permanent citizenship.

“He did not know how the laws of SA work but that is not an excuse as he had to familiarise himself with the laws of the country,” Nkqayana said.

He said Mohammed was a first offender in the country and no information could be obtained about his previous conviction in Bangladesh.

He called for the court to sentence the four women to direct imprisonment or a fine of R5,000.

“Exceptional circumstances exist for the court to deviate for the minimum sentence in terms of Mohammed. The principle of mercy should always be practised by our courts,” he said.

Prosecutor Nkosinathi Faxi called social worker Ntombifikile Boysen to testify.

She testified that the victim feared for her grandmother and siblings because she had been threatened by the four women.

“She did not tell the grandmother of her ordeal, fearing for their safety,” she said.

Boysen said the victim was ashamed of what had happened to her.

“She constantly went to the clinic for sexually transmitted infections. She dealt with the ordeal by eating a lot. She had flashbacks of the people she was forced to sleep with. Her mother had to leave work in Cape Town to be with her,” she said.

She said the child was mocked and called a prostitute by people in the township.

Faxi said the personal circumstances and the youthfulness of the accused should not be entertained by the court, which had to look to the seriousness of the offence.

“Those cannot be taken as mitigating factors. Throughout the case they have pleaded not guilty, yet today we hear that they are remorseful for their deeds,” he said.

"'This was not remorse. It was regret that they were caught.”