Members of a local family are in shock after allegations surfaced from within their ranks that one of their own, a father stands accused of raping his minor daughter who is under 15 years of age.
Due to the sensitive nature of the story and the victim being a minor, full details of the family, where applicable, are not published so as to protect the identity of the child. Following the accusations, one part of the family is still standing with the father and supporting his innocence, while the other part is insisting that the father remains in police custody until the outcome of the hearing in court. The horrific allegations made by a family member, Janine Naidoo concerning the rape of the young family girl has sent shockwaves within the family and even in the Laudium neighbourhood.
According to Janine the father raped the young girl about a month back, on the night of Monday, December 30. However the mother of the girl is still standing with the father and has accused her daughter and Janine of causing problems in her marriage and trying to break up her marriage. Janine told the Laudium Sun, “The young girl was highly traumatised after being raped by her father when he came home all drunk, while the mother was not home. She then told her family friend about the horrific incident a few days later, who then told me about it. I wasted no time after being informed about the daughter who is a family member, being raped by her father. I immediately went to the young girl’s house to get more information about the rape. She told me that she didn’t tell anyone immediately of the rape because she was very traumatised and that is why she didn’t report the rape immediately. The next day, Monday (Jan 6) I took the young girl to the Laudium Clinic to check whether she had been penetrated and the clinic confirmed that the girl had been raped. At the clinic they said that the girl had a sexual infection inflicted during the rape. They gave her medication to treat the infection. We then went to the Laudium Police Station to open a case of rape. After we opened a case of rape the girl’s father was arrested. Now the problem is that the mother of the girl is protecting her husband and she wants me to withdraw the case. The mother also claims that her daughter is lying, which is so wrong for a mother to say. Instead of standing with her daughter and comforting her she is attacking her own daughter during this traumatic period that the daughter is going through.
The mother even assaulted me for opening a rape case against her husband. Now, I am going to open a case against her,” Janine said. Janine added that the young family girl even told her that this was not the first time she had been raped by her father, adding, “The first rape incident happened in August and then the second time was in November last year. In December it was the third rape incident. What is now worrying is that although the father was arrested immediately on the Monday of Jan 6, he has since been released on R2500 bail and I don’t know why his docket was transferred to Pretoria Central. The young girl who is now living with another family member is now terrified that the father will come and attack her or even rape her again. I cannot understand how the court could grant him bail given the serious nature of the crime.” The Laudium Sun managed to get hold of the mother of the young victim, who said, “I believe that my daughter was paid to open this case of rape by the woman who she is staying with, because the child is not living with us for three years. The day on which my husband was accused of raping our daughter, he was not even around as he came from somewhere and he did not spend the night at our place.” The woman who the young girl is living with alleged to the Laudium Sun, “The parents of the young girl are known drug addicts. How can I allow this young girl to go back to her parents, given the condition under which she has been living with them in.”
As the Laudium Police do not have a spokesperson to liaise with the media, the Laudium Sun spoke to the Pretoria West Police spokesperson, Constable Sibongile Vuma, concerning the transfer of the docket to Pretoria Central, who said, “Any rape case which is opened at any police station in the area is transferred to Pretoria Central Police, which has a specific unit to deal with rape cases.”