Trial court found there were no compelling reasons to depart from the prescribed sentence and duly sentenced the appellants to life in jail
CAPE TOWN - Two rapists, each serving life terms behind bars for raping a minor, have failed in their appeals against their convictions and sentencing.
Msekeli Gaju and Siphesihle Qeqe were each convicted on two counts of rape in the Stellenbosch Regional Court for circumstances where the victim was raped more than once.
The trial court found there were no substantial and compelling reasons to depart from the prescribed sentence and duly sentenced the accused to life imprisonment.
During the trial, it was detailed how the minor victim was making her way to a friend’s home in the company of two other women when they realised they were being followed by a group of men. Gaju and Qeqe were part of the group.
“The (women) managed to shake the men off by pretending that they had arrived at their destination. The complainant’s two companions then went to a shebeen and the complainant, who had decided to go home, then noticed that the men were still showing an interest in her, especially Gaju.
After asking someone at the shebeen to give her shelter as she tried to evade the group of men, the person declined to assist the complainant as she did not know her.
“Fortuitously, her brother emerged from the shebeen. He agreed to walk home with her,” court documents read.
As the siblings made their way home, the group of men approached them aggressively using knives and broken bottles, and the frightened brother ran away. When her brother ran off, the group handed the complainant into the custody of Gaju telling him they had “got his ‘girlfriend’ for him”.
Gaju dragged the complainant to his nearby shack, where he forcibly undressed her and raped her, and a while later Qeqe entered the room and the two took turns to repeatedly rape her.
The victim pretended that she needed to urinate and made a brave escape, completely naked, and ran to a nearby shack where she was helped by an older man who offered her clothes.
The victim was able to name Gaju as she heard his name being used by Qeqe during her ordeal.
Too afraid to immediately report the matter, the victim ran home where she told her family. They returned to the shack with the victim where a crowd had gathered.
“The evidence was that Gaju was present and admitted he had had sexual intercourse with her. He apologised for his actions and said he had been intoxicated. His family offered to pay compensation if the complainant would refrain from laying a charge,” court documents read.
In his judgment, Judge Nathan Erasmus said the two had raped the complainant “as if it were some sort of game” before criticising the shoddy preparation of charge sheets in “serious sexual assault cases”.
“The fact that the complainant’s evidence would support charges on multiple counts of rape, not just two, should have been evident to the prosecution before the trial commenced. Charging the appellants with just two counts of rape was grossly inappropriate and a travesty of justice in the circumstances,” said Erasmus.
Cape Times