By Fouzia van der Fort
Two siblings, one of whom was only eight years old at the time, have told the Cape High Court how they were forced to hold down their mother's thighs while she was repeatedly raped.
The boy, now 13, and his sister, 22, were testifying on Monday against a former SA Navy seaman, Tsediso Letsoenya, who faces 104 charges, including 40 counts of rape and 33 of indecent assault.
Their 46-year-old mother was the first of a score of men and women who since have testified that they were raped and assaulted, or fell victim to armed robbery, in open fields across the Peninsula between 2001 and 2005.
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State Advocate Heather Meyer was given permission for the 13-year-old boy and his sister, 22, to testify via a closed-circuit camera which would allow them to sit in a separate room with a camera and microphone.
The court could address and view them via a television screen, but they would be unable to see people in the courtroom.
Meyer explained before each of the siblings testified that giving evidence in open court would cause them "undue stress".
The boy, who was just eight at the time of the rape, was dressed on Monday in his school uniform and sat beside a Rapcan (Resources Aimed at the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect) intermediary and court supporter official who would relay questions from Judge Abdullah Motala, Meyer and Letsoenya's advocate, Nehemiah Ballem.
The boy told the court about a Saturday evening in 2003 when, following his cousin's initiation celebrations, his mother was raped and her boyfriend "smacked" while they were on their way home.
He said a man with a firearm had approached them while they were walking from Philippi bus station to their home.
The son of his mother's boyfriend had fled the scene to alert the police before the perpetrator spotted him.
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