A divorced father of four was sent to jail for 25 years by the Grahamstown High Court on Tuesday for raping and sodomising a mentally-ill girl of 13 .
”The crimes were as bestial as they were heinous,” Judge Andre Erasmus told 44-year-old Mlandeli Mvandaba, of Zola township, Bathurst.
”You are a danger to society and this underscores the fact that you should be removed from society to protect other children from your depredations.”
He added that Mvandaba was a ”sexual predator”.
The girl was assessed by a clinical psychologist and diagnosed as mentally retarded with an estimated IQ of between 35 and 55.
Mvandaba was convicted last Friday of raping and indecently assaulting the girl on December 9 2006 at his house.
The court heard that on the same morning his sick, heavily pregnant partner was taken to Port Alfred hospital by ambulance.
Summarising the evidence of clinical psychologist Karen Andrews, Erasmus said the girl suffered from increased epileptic seizures since the rape, frequent and uncontrollable bouts of crying, anxiety and depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Mvandaba showed no reaction to the sentence.
The girl’s mother, who was present in court, said she was ”very, very happy” with the sentence.
Advocate Nomothetho Ngcinca represented Mvandaba on instructions from the Legal Aid Board. — Sapa