Luvuyo Mjekula
A crowd of about 500 protesters bayed for the blood of a Khayelitsha churchman and traditional dance teacher, who has been charged with the rape of eight of his young dance students, when he appeared in court yesterday.
Mlulami Gagu faced eight counts of rape in the Khayelitsha Magistrate’s Court. However, the case was postponed for the fifth time.
Waving placards, the protesters, comprising Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) and Sonke Gender Justice activists as well as Nkanini, Khayelitsha, residents called for a harsh sentence against Gagu and for rape victims to report their cases.
Gagu, 42, is charged with raping eight girls, aged between five and 12 years, in a Nkanini church hall after he taught them how to dance in November 2009.
However, the rapes only came to light in April this year when a child told a friend.
“The child, who had been raped by another man, told her friend who, in turn, told her that she had also been raped, but by utitshala (teacher),” said a Khayelitsha resident.
Furious Khayelitsha residents then went to Harare police station and reported the matter.
It is alleged that Gagu would ask two of the girls to stay behind after class to help clean up. He would lock the door and rape them, then bribe or threaten them so they would not tell their parents, the residents alleged.
Gagu, originally from Oudtshoorn, was a traditional dance teacher to the children, most under 15, and allegedly raped some of them on church premises.
During his brief appearance in court yesterday, a frail Gagu looked calm.
Magistrate Francois Luyt postponed the case to November 22 to allow the State to consult the victims and investigate other complaints .
The court had heard that Gagu had two previous rape convictions and that 22 other counts of rape had also emerged since his arrest. They would be added to the charge sheet.
He also has two pending rape cases in the Eastern Cape from 2004 and 2007, but told a Khayelitsha magistrate he did not remember the 2007 charge.
The investigating officer in the Khayelitsha case said there were two pending cases and warrants of arrest out for him.
Gagu has been kept in custody since his arrest because the State not only feared he was a threat to young girls and a flight risk, but also feared for his own life.
The TAC called on the justice system to “prosecute and sentence these perpetrators quickly and bring justice to the people”.
“We encourage people to open cases against rapists but when the case gets to the courts, they take forever to prosecute,” said TAC spokesman Lumkile Sizila.
Gagu’s case was one of three targeted by the TAC, the others being the murder of lesbian Zoliswa Nkonyana and the attack on a Khayelitsha gogo accused of being a witch.