A 50-year-old Pietermaritzburg pastor was on Tuesday sentenced to life in prison by the city’s high court for raping a nine-year-old girl.
”The rape has gained him very little, but killed the spirit of three women — the victim, her mother and his own wife,” acting Judge Aboobaker Mohamed said during sentencing.
Pastor Sakhayedwa Hlatswayo was convicted in the local regional court of raping the girl, who had at times played in his house, in December 2003. The case was transferred to the high court as the prescribed sentence exceeded the jurisdiction of the trial court.
Mohamed said that when the legislature passed the minimum sentence for rape, deterrence was the main component of sentencing.
”This court will not ignore the cries of anguish of countless numbers of mothers and grandmothers who have to leave their children alone or in the care of others.
”The courts must send out the message that rape will be severely punished.
”Rape is a perverted and cowardly abuse and to do it to a girl of nine is to kill innocence itself,” the judge said. — Sapa