Two rape convicts will each spend the next ten years in jail for the heinous offences they committed on separate incidents.
The first accused to get his sentence, 33-year-old Bathusi Mmualefe, from Magotlhwane ward in Diphuduhudu, is accused of raping his 26-year-old victim on March 16th, 2019.
Mmualefe is said to have met his ex-girlfriend’s victim at an entertainment joint and later followed her as she left for home.
Court heard that Mmualefe hit the victim with a quart bottle on the head before dragging her to a bus shelter where he raped her twice.
In mitigation, Mmualefe pleaded with the court to be lenient with him as the complainant had earlier agreed to withdraw the case but later changed her mind.
“She demanded a P7 000.00 compensation and I gave her P4 000 and three goats. Later when we came for trial, the complainant got scared and failed to fulfil her promise and even ended up saying things which were not true before court,” claimed Mmualefe.
“She said we have children together, but that’s not true. She is barren, she doesn’t even have a single child. I have children elsewhere. I also have a child who is sick and when I got arrested he had just undergone a surgery and I am the only one caring for him,” Mmualefe said.
Magistrate Kaveri Kapeko however took into consideration his mitigatory factors but noted that when Mmualefe started mitigating he seemed to be giving exceptional extenuating circumstances that the court should reduce his sentence and later mixed mitigation with evidence.
Another accused from Letlhakeng, Asa Segolame aged 27, allegedly raped his 25-year-old victim on July 26th, 2018 also after entertainment at a bar.
Segolame who knew his victim from Shageng ward where they both reside, had allegedly offered to walk her home on the fateful night.
Along the way Segolame allegedly dragged the victim to his place and strangled her forcing her to undress and raped her.
The victim only managed to escape after she asked him for some water and he told her to go and drink from the pipe outside the house.
“When the case commenced in 2018, I was working in South Africa and I followed the court order that I should appear in court all the time but ended up losing my job and have since then never got a stable job. I have two children whose mother is unemployed, the other one is supposed to start school,” said the remorseful Segolame.
He continued saying, “I have never committed any other offence, if given a lenient sentence I promise to rehabilitate. It wasn’t my intention to waste the court’s time, I just wanted to prove my innocence.”
When sentencing Segolame, Magistrate Kapeko said jail time was an opportunity for the youthful convict to upgrade his life by studying any course just like those who went to study abroad.
