Brave girl testifies about rape

145 A young rape victim's guardian holds her picture as the controversy around the little girl's situation continues. 230712. Picture: Bongiwe Mchunu

145 A young rape victim's guardian holds her picture as the controversy around the little girl's situation continues. 230712. Picture: Bongiwe Mchunu

Published Jul 25, 2012

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Tshego* sat clutching her orange teddy bear, eyes nervously looking around the brightly decorated intermediary room.

Ntombi Zwane, an intermediary, adjusted the earphones on seven-year-old Tshego’s head as she listened to Johannesburg High Court Judge Kathy Satchwell on the other end.

“My name is Kathy and ndivela eBhayi. Ndithetha isiXhosa kancinci (I’m from Port Elizabeth and I speak a little Xhosa); do you think I speak Xhosa well?” Satchwell asked the little girl on Tuesday.

Tshego nodded twice.

“Today, we are all going to ask you questions … it’ll be hard work, but I’m sure for a girl in Grade 1 whose teacher claps for her when she does well, you’ll be okay… can you do that?” the judge asked softly.

“Yes,” Tshego replied in a barely audible voice.

Tshego was allegedly abducted by 27-year-old Simon Rikhotso on December 24 last year, while she had been visiting her grandmother in Thembisa.

Rikhotso is accused of kidnapping the child and taking her to a nearby open field, where he ordered her to undress and raped her twice.

He later took the girl to his back room and raped her again, and then again and on Christmas morning.

Her screams were heard by Rikhotso’s 15-year-old niece who had been inside the main house watching movies that morning.

After Tshego was found inside the room, Rikhotso’s 62-year-old father, Jackson, took the girl back to her grandmother’s house.

On Monday, Rikhotso pleaded not guilty to the one count of kidnapping and three counts of rape he faces.

He opted not to give a plea explanation and has reserved his right to remain silent.

Tshego was sitting inside the intermediary room with Zwane, a trained child caregiver, as the court watched and communicated with her via a live-streaming TV screen.

“Last year, the day before Christmas, when your granny went to work, who was looking after you?” asked State prosecutor Carla Britz.

“I was not there, they had stolen me … I was in a field with that man,” she replied softly.

Tshego told the court she had been called outside by two children, saying a man was calling her. She knew the man because she had see him at her father’s house a number of times.

“Why was he (Rikhotso) looking for you?” Britz asked. “Because he wanted to buy me ikota (bunny chow) and cooldrink,” she said. “He took me and ran with me,” the girl said.

“What happened at the field, can you remember?” Britz inquired.

“Yes, he got on top of me and raped me and raped me,” the girl responded.

She told the court he had taken off his and her clothes and was hitting her head against the ground.

“He took out a knife and wanted to stab me,” she said.

While the court excused Tshego as she was tired, Rikhotso’s niece testified to opening up her uncle’s back room on Christmas morning after she had heard Tshego’s screams.

She said she had seen Tshego inside the room. When she asked Tshego who she had come with, she told her she had come with Rikhotso.

The trial continues.

* Not her real name.

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The Star Africa

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