The 58-year-old man’s formal bail hearing at the Roodepoort Magistrate’s Court has been postponed.
Outraged Sowetan community members and several political organisations swarmed outside the Roodepoort Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday morning to protest against a rape-accused church leader’s bail application.
The 58-year-old man, accused of raping a 12-year-old girl at his parental home in Dobsonville, Soweto, first appeared in court last week after his arrest on 4 April.
He is alleged to have raped the young girl on Good Friday when she had visited his home during an electrical outage at her home.
His formal bail application has been postponed to 22 April so that the defence can gather further personal details.
Members of the public and the media were not allowed inside the courtroom, but that did not stop scores of people outside from expressing their deep dissatisfaction and outrage with the incident.
‘Enough is enough!’
Within the billowing crowd, Gauteng social development MEC Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko told the media that, as a mother, she was disturbed by the case. The MEC was in attendance to picket against the accused’s bail application.
Nkomo-Ralehoko said that when she heard about the case, her 21-year-old daughter was the first person who came to mind, as she imagined the horror of such a thing being done to her child.
Church-affiliated members also commented on the distrust that emerges when individuals meant to serve and protect the community are implicated in such allegations.
A female leader in the Methodist Church in Dobsonville, the church where the accused also served as a minister, spoke out against the accused.
“This is really disheartening, and we can’t take it anymore,” she said.
“We can’t be the pastors that always lie, that always become the perpetrators… We are supposed to build…to care…. to love.
“Enough is enough!”
Speaking to eNCA, Build One South Africa leader Musi Maimane called for the maximum sentence to be imposed if the accused is found guilty.
No one is above the law
Boitumelo Thage, national organiser of Not In My Name, said no person, regardless of their leadership status, is above the law.
“We further emphasise that no individual, regardless of their position in society, their profession, or their standing within any institution, is above the law.
Leadership must never be used as a shield for wrongdoing,” he said.
Councillor Margaret Arnolds, Speaker of Council in the City of Johannesburg, echoed Maimane’s sentiment and called for the court to reject the bail application.
“Let me state clearly: given the extreme seriousness of these allegations and the profound harm inflicted on a minor, I sincerely hope that the court, in exercising its discretion, rejects the bail application,” she said in a statement.
“While I fully respect the independence of our judiciary and the fundamental legal principle that every accused person is presumed innocent until proven guilty, I believe that offences of this nature demand the highest level of caution,” she continued.
Support for the family
“I remain unwavering in my solidarity with the child and their family. No child should ever have to endure such trauma, and no family should have to face this pain alone, ” said Arnolds.
Department of Social Development Minister Nokuzola Sisisi Tolashe said social workers had been dispatched to offer psychosocial support and trauma counselling services to the family.
According to Sowetan, the child continues to receive medical attention and is no longer attending school. Her mother also plans to move out of Dobsonville.
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