Cape Town - A father accused of raping, sodomising and “sexually grooming” his now teenage foster child was granted R500 bail in the Khayelitsha Magistrate’s Court yesterday, with strict conditions that he stays at a different address for the duration of the case.
Additional bail conditions include that the couple don't communicate with witnesses and don’t go to Town Two in Khayelitsha.
The man's wife, who is charged with defeating the ends of justice because she did not report the “multiple rapes” to authorities, was also granted R500 bail with conditions that she does not contact the victim or her two biological daughters, who are now State witnesses.
Magistrate Vernon Jantjies said he granted the couple bail because “there is no evidence before this court of criminal report”.
“There is no evidence that the accused will endanger the witnesses. There is no history of the accused fleeing (court cases). The court treated the accused as innocent until proven guilty,” said Jantjies.
Prosecutor Manelisi Macaba alleges the father, whose name cannot be revealed to protect the identity of the teenage girl as she is a rape survivor, sexually assaulted the child between 2007 and 2013, until her teachers intervened and told social workers.
As part of a school assignment detailing the worst day of her life, she wrote down what her foster father was allegedly doing to her. She also kept a diary listing the alleged rapes, according to investigating officer Themba Tobi.
Tobi told the court that the mother, whose name cannot be revealed, had confiscated the diary.
The lawyer representing the couple, Bandile Mbenyane, told Jantjies that there was no evidence that the father was a flight risk.
Arguing against the couple being granted bail, Macaba said the case was not common as it involved a minor.
“To ensure other kids are safe the accused should remain in custody. She was in a position to act as a parent, but failed."