Kimberley - A six-year-old boy regularly asks his grandfather and baby brother to perform oral and anal sex on him, according to his family, who only recently discovered that he was being sodomised by a 15-year-old boy.
The family in Roodepan believes that the justice system is failing them as two months after the case was reported to the police, no action has been taken against the alleged rapist.
“The rapist attends high school and is free to roam the streets, while this poor boy is traumatised and is emotionally and physically scarred. The suspect has never appeared in court,” they told reporters.
The six-year-old boy and his 18-month-old brother have been removed from their parental home and placed in the care of their grandparents.
The young boy, who takes anti-anxiety medication on a daily basis, told the DFA that his parents smoked drugs in his presence.
“They use a broken beer bottle and light the drugs before inhaling it,” the Grade 1 learner said.
He added that another boy wanted to have sexual intercourse with him.
Family members said that the boy rubbed his genitals suggestively and asked them to smear petroleum jelly between his buttocks, so that he could be anally penetrated.
“Perhaps he is role playing what he witnessed on a regular basis or is acting out the terrible ordeal that he had to go through. He was hospitalised three times because of anxiety attacks and has become angry and withdrawn. He is an intelligent boy but since this happened, he has not been back to school and will have to attend a special school next year. It is as if his brain has shut down.”
They added that the boy slept in the same bedroom as his 18-month-old brother.
“We are very worried that he might do something terrible to him. We believe that he was raped repeatedly, because of his extensive knowledge about sexual acts.”
They indicated that the boy had been placed on anti-retroviral drugs for over a month and thankfully tested negative for HIV.
“Both he and the suspect were taken for DNA testing and, according to the medical report at the Kimberley Hospital, he had suffered severe anal and rectal injuries.”
The family indicated that the incident took place on June 4 in Homevale, in the same street where the boy was living with his parents at the time.
“He was constantly wandering around in the street and the suspect lives only a few houses away. Since we reported the case, we have not even received a case number. We were informed that the investigating officer at the Witdam Police Station was on leave and only recently returned. Why was this case not handed over to another investigating officer?”
According to the boy’s grandmother she was taking her grandson for psychological counselling at West End Hospital.
“I am a nurse and I do not have enough family responsibility days to keep up with all the appointments. He is on scheduled medication for the anxiety but that does not even help anymore. I constantly worry about him,” she added.
His aunt was afraid that the boy might rape her three-year-old child.
“He is not himself. When he becomes angry, he attacks us, walks away and tells us to handcuff him. We have not had the courage to speak about what happened but we believe that this must be exposed. It seems as if action is only taken against adults. If you are a child - you can get away with murder. We have so much anger towards the boy who did this and want to kill him,” the aunt said.
Police spokesman, Lieutenant Donald Mdhluli, said the Roodepan police were investigating a case of rape involving a minor.
“The investigating officer is in constant contact with the family regarding progress in the case. The suspect in this case is a minor. The family of the suspect is fully co-operating with the police,” Mdhluli said.
He added that due to the sensitive nature of the case, they were unable to divulge more information.
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