Standing in the middle of a silent courtroom, Tshego* raised her small right hand and pointed at a man sitting in the courtroom gallery.
“Nanguyana… ngu Simon (there he is, it’s Simon),” she said in a whisper, breaking the silence.
On Wednesday had been Tshego’s second day testifying against 27-year-old Simon Rikhotso, the man who allegedly raped her on Christmas Eve last year in Tembisa.
The seven-year-old girl had started testifying through an intermediary at the Johannesburg High Court on Tuesday from another room, but on Wednesday she was brought face to face with her alleged attacker.
Rikhotso was sitting outside the accused dock when the little girl pointed him out among several men inside the courtroom.
Before identifying Rikhotso, Tshego underwent cross-examination by Rikhotso’s defence counsel, Jesse Penton.
On Tuesday, Tshego had told the court how she had been at her grandmother’s house in Tembisa on December 24 last year when two children called her out to the street, telling her a man had asked for her.
When she was out on the street, Rikhotso “stole her” and took her to a nearby field, where he hit her head against the ground, undressed her and raped her twice.
He hadn’t stopped there. According to the girl, he had taken her to his backyard room, where he raped her anally and vaginally.
The girl was found inside his locked room alone on Christmas Day by Rikhotso’s niece and father.
On Monday, Rikhotso pleaded not guilty to one count of kidnapping and three counts of rape.
“I’m going to suggest to you how this whole thing happened… You can tell us whether you agree or disagree,” Penton said, looking at the little girl through a live-streaming link.
“I’d like to put it to you that the man who took you was in fact not Simon, but a friend of Simon. What do you say?” he asked.
“It’s not true,” she replied matter-of-factly.
“I want to say to you that you are confusing the two men because they were in the same room,” Penton continued.
“It is Simon,” Tshego insisted.
When asked who explained what sexual intercourse was to her, Tshego said: “I saw him the time he was doing it to me.”
* Not her real name
The Star