The Provincial Commissioner of Police in Limpopo Lieutenant General Thembi Hadebe has welcomed the life imprisonment handed down by the Regional Court in Mahwelereng on Tuesday 26 April 2022, against a 43-year-old man who was convicted of raping a 12-year-old girl in 2019.
The court found that the accused had on 8 August 2019 at about 16:00 raped the victim when she entered his premises at Leyden village in Mapela outside Mokopane, to ask for drinking water.
The victim, who was a Grade 6 learner at the time, was on the way home after playing with friends in the neighbourhood.
The case was assigned to Sergeant Khomotso Rammutla of the Mokopane Family Violence Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit (FCS). Through meticulous investigation conducted by Sergeant Rammutla, the now sentenced accused was, a month later, on 23 September 2019 arrested and was kept in custody until his ultimate incarceration.
“As we continue to fight the scourge of Gender Based Violence and Femicide, sentences like this will send a strong message that the police are more than determined to put all perpetrators of these heinous crimes behind bars.” Concluded Lieutenant General Hadebe.
