Durban - A 37-year-old man has been convicted and sentenced to a total of 38 years imprisonment by the Pinetown Regional Court for five counts of rape.
His victim - his stepdaughter - told the court that her ordeal started when she was 13 years old.
She testified that she was sexually abused after being drugged by the accused and continued to be abused by him until January 2014, just before her 17th birthday.
She confided in a friend, who alerted the victim’s mother, and a case of rape was opened with the Pinetown SAPS.
Later, the Pinetown Family Violence Child Protection Unit took over the investigation, which led to her step-father being arrested and charged with rape, said SAPS spokesman, Major Thulani Zwane.
KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Commissioner, Lieutenant-General Mmamonnye Ngobeni, applauded the police for the arrest, saying: “We would like to send a strong message to all sexual predators that they shall be dealt with by the full might of the law.”
Meanwhile, in uMhlali, the police have arrested a 19-year-old for the alleged kidnapping and murder of a five-year-old girl, Velile Mngomezulu, from the Etete area.
A post-mortem will be conducted to establish how she died, and also to determine if she was raped.
Police said it was alleged that the girl’s aunt woke up early last Friday morning to do her daily chores, and discovered that the front door was wide open and that her niece was missing.
A search was mounted and little Velile was found in a stormwater drain. She was taken to hospital in a critical condition, where she later died.
The suspect appeared at the KwaDukuza Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday on murder and kidnapping charges and the case was remanded until July 14 for a bail application.
Daily News