SCHWEIZER-RENEKE - A 36-year-old man has been handed a life imprisonment term by the Scheizer-Reneke Regional Court for the rape of an 11-year-old girl more than two-and-a-half years ago, the South African Police Service (SAPS) in the North West said on Sunday.
The sentence was imposed on the accused this past week after he was found guilty of raping the minor girl and, was the consequence of good investigative work carried out by officers attached to the Wolmaransstad SAPS family violence, child protection, and sexual offences unit (FCS), North West SAPS spokesperson Colonel Adéle Myburgh said in a statement.
The court heard that the man had raped his former girlfriend's daughter, who was 11 years of age at the time, on Sunday, December 31, 2017 in Ipelegeng at Schweizer-Reneke. The little girl was asleep in her bed when the accused woke her up and eventually raped her.
The little girl reported the incident to her mother at about 8pm that same night. The mother found the man still asleep in her daughter’s bed. The matter was reported at the local police station and the man was arrested later that night.
North West police commissioner Lt-Gen Sello Kwena welcomed the sentencing. He also lauded the two detectives involved in the investigation, Sergeant Abram Hlatswayo and Sergeant Mpho Mokgosi, for their sterling efforts which ensured that "a merciless rapist gets a hefty sentence", Myburgh said.
African News Agency (ANA), editing by Jacques Keet