Mukoni T Rasthitanga
Pretoria businessman Gaby Magomola maintains he was framed by a woman who charged him with rape last year and intends suing her in return for the damage he suffered
Western Cape Attorney General Frank Khan last week withdrew the rape charge on the grounds of “material discrepancies”.
Magomola’s accuser did not show up in court as she has left the country with her American husband.
Magomola this week repeated the assertion he made from the day he was charged – that he was framed. “Maybe she [the accuser] wanted something from me.”
The woman had claimed she was raped five months ago, after she and Magomola left a jazz club in Cape Town.
“She requested a lift home from me – something I dearly regret – because her husband had left. I dropped her at her doorstep and drove back to my hotel. A few days later I was contacted by the police advising that she had laid charges of rape against me,” he said.
Magomola said he has been traumatised since the rape allegations were made public. “At the beginning I was very dumfounded. Because she is a complainant in a case against me, I could not even speak to her.”
He said he has known the woman for over 10 years, since she was in her teens.
“I was totally defenceless at that stage, except to maintain my innocence. You can imagine the kind of pain it caused me, my family, my friends and my business interests,” he said.
Magomola could not say who might be behind the plot to frame him. “I thought hard about it but could not arrive at any conclusion.”
He added: “Some journalists attempted to drive a wedge between me and the significant relationship I had nurtured over a long time.”
Magomola said he will sue the woman. “She did not even have the decency to appear in court or go before the attorney general to substantiate her allegations.”
Magomola is a prominent political and business leader. In 1963 he was sent to Robben Island for five years for political offences. He is a director of numerous companies and has been the recipient of several honours and awards.
Khan said the “objective facts took the case no further. In essence it boils down to one person’s word against the other.
“Taking all the facts and the law into account, I felt that there was no basis for a successful prosecution.”
He said had the woman been available to testify, his attitude would have remained the same.