Durban — The case against a Welbedacht school kitchen worker alleged to have raped a pupil was adjourned to early next month in the Chatsworth Magistrate’s Court.
The 35-year-old man appeared briefly in court on Friday charged with the alleged rape of a 5-year-old grade R pupil which he is alleged to have committed in September last year.
The case was adjourned for further investigations.
It is alleged that on the morning of September 6, the man followed the little girl into the primary school’s toilet and he told the child to take off her underwear and lie on the floor, where he then allegedly penetrated her.
It is further alleged that he had threatened to beat the child until she died if she told anyone what had happened.
When the child returned home she told her aunt of the ordeal. Her mother, who was not home, learnt from her sister later that evening what had happened to her daughter. When the mother questioned her about what had happened, the little girl was able to describe the colour pants the man was wearing and said she could point him out.
The next morning the mother headed to the school and then later to the police station to report the alleged rape.
According to the child’s family, the girl was also taken to R K Khan hospital where she received counselling after a doctor’s examination confirmed that she had indeed been penetrated.
When police arrived at the school it had been in the afternoon and only two employees had still been at the school. The child told police that the man who had allegedly raped her was not one of the two.
Police arrived the next day with the child, where all male employees, including teachers, were gathered for the child to point out her alleged rapist.
The pupil was said to have pointed out the alleged perpetrator twice and he was handcuffed and taken away by the police. The man has been in custody since his arrest after having been denied bail by the court.
Speaking outside court, the little girl’s mother said her child had since moved to another area after a resident had allegedly posted on social media in support of the charged man. The post had included details about the child which revealed where she lived.
The young mother said following the alleged rape her child did not want anyone else to bath her except for her.
“She is particularly close to me, so this is hard for both of us. And the move I imagine is secondary trauma on top of the initial trauma of the actual incident. I cannot say whether she is coping because some days she would be okay and others she was not, but as soon as you ask her about the day after speaking she would isolate herself and, after a while, she would interact with the other children at home.”
She said having the man remain behind bars after being denied bail was the first step in having justice served.
“He must be handed a life sentence because I believe that he was calculating in what he did. I believe that he had long targeted my child, watching her routine daily.
“The children would go to the toilet when they arrived because the teacher had instructed them to. My child was some of the few children who arrived early at school,” she explained.
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