NELSPRUIT – COPE has urged members of the Bushbuckridge community who have shown anger after a father accused of raping and fathering a child with his biological daughter walked free from the Bushbuckridge magistrate court on Monday to exercise patience.
The father was arrested at his home in Secunda in the province’s Eastern Highveld last week and transported to Bushbuckridge where the alleged repeated rapes took place for a number of years. It is alleged that he fathered a child with his daughter about 15 years before.
The rapes only came to light recently after the father and his daughter had arguments in which she accused him of raping her for a number of years.
He appeared before court and the case against him was provisionally withdrawn pending the outcome of DNA tests conducted on him and the child that allegedly born after the alleged rapes.
The withdrawal of the case did not go well with the community members who had come to support the victim and the opposition party has established that the anger spiraled to the community back where the girl came from.
“Please allow justice to take its course because anyone is innocent until proven otherwise by a court of law. For the State to convict any accused it must be able to prove beyond bona fide reasonable doubts that the person is indeed guilty. Under the circumstances the onus rests on the outcome of the DNA tests which will be able to determine if indeed this father had a child with his own daughter,” said Mr Riot Hlatshwayo,communications manager for Cope.
He added that the court was not left with any alternative but to withdraw the charges, albeit provisionally, meaning they may be reinstated at any given time in the future.
