Port Elizabeth - A matric student bravely watched as her once father figure was sentenced to life imprisonment in the Port Elizabeth High Court on Friday, for raping her when she was just 11-years old.
After seven years, Makasonke Wellington Mboniswa, 53, was sentenced and the teenager said she got justice. Speaking to reporters afterwards, she said she thought justice had been served because this time round he will not just be an awaiting trial prisoner but a prisoner for life.
The young girl, struggling to hold back her tears and nervously shaking when speaking to reporters, said she attended court on Friday, because she wanted to show her rapist - whom she once called Tata - that she was strong.
The 18-year-old girl said that after she completed her matric year she aspired to study towards becoming a social worker to help traumatised people cope and to turn her nightmare into something positive.
Makasonke Mboniswa, 53, was sentenced to life imprisonment in the Port Elizabeth High Court on Friday.
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"You can name me, I am not embarrassed. When this happened I lost myself, but in the end I want to say I am a survivor and not a victim," she told reporters shortly after her attacker was sentenced.
Dressed in her school uniform she said that she wanted to attend court because she wanted to see him walking down the court steps and going to prison.
During January 2011, she was 11-years-old and staying with her mother and aunt in Kwazakhele. At the time Mboniswa was having an affair with the girl's aunt and had stayed over at the home.
The following day, the mistress left the house earlier in the morning. The little girl, her mother and Mboniswa remained.
Mboniswa, who is employed as an admin clerk at the Nelson Mandela Municipality, then sent the little girl to a shop to buy airtime and a cold drink for him. The then 11-year old girl loaded the airtime as he requested.
Mboniswa then sent the girl's mother to a shop to buy chicken, so that she could cook breakfast for him.
During this time Mboniswa instructed the child to come closer to him laying on the bed. When the girl refused he grabbed, pulled and raped her.
When her mother returned she found her daughter in her room while Mboniswa was still in the house. Her mother told her not to be scared and they both left for school and reported the rape to the school's deputy principal. After the rape the girl's mother was kicked out of her sisters home and for a time had nowhere to go.
"My aunt hates my guts now," the grown rape survivor told reporters at court.
In passing down sentence, Judge Onika Van Papendorp said that there was a clear lack of remorse shown by Mboniswa and that he was not ready to take responsibility for his actions.
Van Papendorp dismissed the fact that he was a first time offender and said that she found no substantial and compelling circumstances to deviate from the prescribed minimum sentence of life.
"The mother said that the child wanted to commit suicide, she was struggling to sleep and didn't want to talk because it brought back the memories," Van Papendorp said.
"They say sometimes that the impact [of rape] is sometimes worst than a loss of life itself as it keeps coming back."
Mboniswa who has been married for 13 years with four children, was supported by a host of family members at court.
He showed no emotion as he walked down to the courts holding cells where there after he would go back to St Albans prison.