EC man gets life for raping 9-year-old whose gran 'threatened to kill her' if she reported it

The Bhisho high court has sentenced a 47-year-old man to life imprisonment for repeatedly raping a nine-year-old girl.

The court also ordered Siyanda Madlebe’s name be included in the National Register of Sexual Offenders. The child was his girlfriend's granddaughter.

Luxolo Tyali, the National Prosecuting Authority's (NPA) Eastern Cape spokesperson, said Madlebe and the victim’s grandmother lived together at Gxulu, Keiskammahoek, in 2018 and 2019.

“Their living arrangement was that the victim was sleeping in the kitchen, while her granny and Madlebe slept in the bedroom.

“During the night Madlebe would come to the kitchen, undress the victim and rape her. He would close her mouth with his hand to prevent her from screaming and threatened to kill her if she reported the rape,” said Tyali.

The sexual assaults continued until the girl told her grandmother about them. However, she did not believe the child and admonished her.

“The grandmother even threatened to kill the victim with a knife if she continued 'telling lies about her boyfriend'. Even after the girl told her friend, the grandmother refused to believe her.”

Madlebe was only arrested after the victim told her mother, after moving out of her grandmother's home in 2021.

Madlebe pleaded not guilty.

Welcoming the sentence, Eastern Cape director of public prosecutions Barry Madolo commended the prosecutor, advocate Nocwaka Blorweni-Tokota, and investigating officer Sgt Candy Gala for their meticulous collection and presentation of evidence.

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