EFF calls for review of judgment on father who sexually assaulted daughter for eight years

18 July 2020

The Economic Freedom Fighters is disturbed by the lenient judgement passed down in the Vredendal Magistrates Court against a father who was found to have been sexually assaulting his daughter for a period of eight-years. The court handed down a five-year suspended sentence, with 24-months correctional supervision for a man who has stolen the childhood of his daughter and actively committed a violent crime against her for almost a decade.

This is an alarming judgment in light of the scourge of violence against women and children in South Africa and reaffirms the belief that the judicial system is comprised of individuals who do not grasp the gravity and damage of sexual violence and abuse of children. There is an attitude of disregard by those charged with effecting justice in our judicial system, and it allows perpetrators to get away with heinous crimes and leads to victims not having any faith that they will find justice should they approach our justice system. This begins at the police station where victims are turned away up until the courts, where victims are dehumanised, and perpetrators are given ridiculously lenient sentences.

This judgement comes after revelations in the province of KwaZulu-Natal that one Kholeka Bodlani has been giving light sentences to perpetrators of sexual assault against women and children for years, and has flouted all legal precedence and minimum sentence requirements at the expense of victims. Judgements such as these reveal that there is a rotten culture in our judicial system, which essentially operates as an ally of offenders of Gender-Based Violence.

The EFF calls for the immediate review of the judgement handed down in Vredendal Magistrates Court and for the judge involved in passing down this grossly unjust sentence to be subjected to a suspension and inquiry. There is no logical reason for a man who has robbed his daughter of a childhood to be given such a lenient sentence and allowed back into broader society to operate with impunity.

We call for the immediate removal of the Magistrate who handed down this sentence, and an investigation into all sexual crimes cases they have presided over. We call on the NPA to appeal this absurd judgement, a judgement repugnant to public policy, morals and all that our constitution stands for. The NPA did appeal the lenient sentence of Oscar Pretorius, and so it can also do the same with this absurd sentence.

Issued by Vuyani Pambo, National Spokesperson, EFF, 18 July 2020