Johannesburg - The father of the boy whose body was dumped next to a railway line was found guilty of murdering him.
He was also found guilty of raping his niece, who is the mother of his son.
Initially, the boy’s identity remained unknown for days. The body lay for almost two months at the Germiston state mortuary.
His identity was only revealed after The Star published his face on the front page on October 15, 2013.
After that, local radio stations appealed to residents to assist in finding the child’s parents. It was then that the child’s mother went to the police to identity the child.
At the time, the woman told the police that the child was living with his father when he disappeared.
The father’s picture was published in The Star after the police said he was a wanted man.
The man was arrested in July 10 last year after fleeing from the police. He was arrested with his live-in girlfriend, who witnessed the child’s brutal assaults and his killing.
Charges against the girlfriend were withdrawn after she turned State witness.
On Wednesday, Acting Judge Delize Smith convicted the man on two counts of rape and murder in the high court sitting in Palm Ridge.
She said the accused “was not a friend of the truth”.
Regarding the two charges of rape, Judge Smith said the victim, Nokuthula*, had told the court the truth, even though there were no other witnesses.
She said Nokuthula did not hesitate to testify and was a competent witness who wasn’t prompted in her testimony.
During the trial, she told the court that the man – who is her uncle – repeatedly raped her at gunpoint.
She said the uncle threatened to kill her, even though she had resisted him.
He applied petroleum jelly to her genitalia before he raped her and she fell pregnant as a result of the attacks.
Her first ordeal occurred in 2006, when the accused asked her to sleep in his shack and look after his belongings for the night.
She testified that her grandmother agreed to the arrangement.
She testified that her uncle came home late at night and she opened the door for him. As she was about to leave her uncle’s room, he ordered her to undress.
Her grandmother later chased her away after learning about the pregnancy. She gave birth in January 2008.
The judge rejected the accused’s version that he found his niece having sex with another boy on the night of the incident.
The judge said it was surprising that the accused did not dispute his niece’s pregnancy despite telling the court that the victim had many boyfriends in the township.
The court heard that he got a shack for his niece after she was chased away by his mother, and later moved in with her.
But during cross-examination, he contradicted himself by telling the court that he got a shack for himself, and later the victim came to live with him.
On the murder count, the judge said the accused had also lied to the court that on August 17, 2013 he never assaulted his son, blaming his girlfriend for the death.
He claimed the girlfriend was lying to protect herself.
Judge Smith said any normal-thinking person would have known that assaulting the child in the manner the accused did could have caused death.
She said the accused had discovered that the boy had defecated on himself on the day of the murder.
The boy collapsed, bleeding from the nose, after the beating. He then died.
During trial, the girlfriend told the court how the child was battered by his father. She said he would assault the child, using his fists, broomsticks and shoes.
The witness also testified that the accused forcefully placed the child on her back and together they went to dump him in a nearby stretch of veld.
Sentencing was postponed to next Wednesday.