Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1998. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Sunday Times, South Africa - Sunday, July 19, 1998
Simnikiwe Xabanisa and Taschica Pillay
The 28-year-old Lamontville, Durban, man, who may not be named to protect his child's identity, was convicted in the Durban magistrate's court of attempted rape.
The girl, a grade two pupil, described two sexual assaults she suffered at the hands of her father. A doctor who examined her told the court her hymen had not been broken and her father was acquitted on charges of rape.
The Grade two child has told a court of her chilling ordeal at the hands of her father who raped her on two occasions.
The 28-year-old Lamontville man was, however, found guilty of attempted rape after a doctor who examined the child told the Durban Magistrate's Court that her hymen had not been penetrated.
The father of four, who pleaded not guilty, has been held in custody since his arrest in June last year.
Sentencing was postponed to next week to allow the man to have another HIV test because he has refused to accept the first result.
In a statement handed to the court, the child said that in February last year she visited her father, who is separated from her mother, to get money from him.
He grabbed her arm and began removing her underwear. She screamed and with her panties around her knees, ran out of the house.
Her father called her back, showed her a R5 coin and told her he would not hurt her.
When she went back into the house he covered her mouth with his hand and raped her on his bed. She said she did not tell anyone about the attack because her father threatened to shoot her if she did.
The girl, who lives with her great-grandmother, said two months after the assault she returned to her father. She wanted him to take her to hospital as she had a neck rash and head sores.
As it was late and he was not home, her father's mother told her to spend the night there.
In her statement, the girl said she was asleep when her father returned home and raped her.
The following day he took her to a clinic. She was then referred to the King Edward VIII Hospital.
Her mother took her to the hospital the next day where doctors discovered that she had been sexually abused.
Her mother then laid charges and took her for tests at Addington Hospital which showed she was HIV positive.
After the child's mother tested negative for HIV, the court requested that her father be examined. He tested positive early this year.
Probation officer Nomusa Mthembu has recommended to the court that the father be jailed.
She said the man, who has children by four women, initially refused to accept his HIV status as he said he felt healthy.
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