"If she is raped again, we will have failed her."
"If she is raped again, we will have failed her."
A psychologist was recommending that a girl with the mental age of an 8-year-old whose rapist was sentenced to life in prison by the Grahamstown High Court on Wednesday be institutionalised, for her own protection.
Wandile Ndleleni, 42, from Bathurst, was convicted of raping the 17-year-old mentally disabled girl when he spent the night at her grandparents' home last December.
Clinical psychologist Karen Andrews said the girl had been in shock, experiencing Rape Trauma Syndrome for three weeks after the attack.
"She was crying uncontrollably and in a hysterical mental state. Her level of anxiety was very high. She was restless, distracted and agitated,” Andrews said, explaining that the girl had become obsessed with the fear that she was going to be raped again.
''It appears that she is responding to a sense that she has no control over being raped, and that there is nothing to protect her from rape. Being raped for the fourth time has left an indelible imprint of a sense of worthlessness on her self-esteem,” she said, suggesting that the girl be institutionalised to protect her.
“If she is raped again, we will have failed her,” Andrews said.
The court had earlier heard that this was the fourth time the girl had been raped in four years. In 2007, Mlandeli Mvandaba was sentenced to 25 years for raping her and in 2008, Lunga Tata was sentenced to life in prison for the same crime. In the same year, Mcebisi Dyantyi was also sentenced to life in prison for raping her.
Arguing before Judge Elna Revelas in favour of a life sentence, senior state prosecutor Nickie Turner said: "The gravity of the crime cannot be understated. The complainant is a young and extremely vulnerable girl by virtue of her psychological limitations.
"But she, like any other child, is entitled to visit her grandparents and expect to spend the night with them, in the security of their home, in peace, without the ever present fear of being raped.”
Turner also said Ndleleni had been a guest in the household.
“The accused committed a gross violation not only of the young body and mind of his immediate victim, but also of the hospitality offered to him by a family. She was asleep in the security of her grandparents' house when the accused took the opportunity to rape the most vulnerable member thereof and pretend thereafter that nothing happened,” she said.
Defence counsel Deon Geldenhuys's arguments in mitigation of sentence centred around Ndleleni's socio-economic circumstances.
He said Ndleleni had left school in Grade 1, was single and had two children.
“He has no formal education, and did not have opportunities like other people have," Geldenhuys said, arguing for a long sentence rather than life-imprisonment.
Judge Revelas said while Ndleleni came from a poor socio-economic background, the same was true for the victim.
“High prevalence of rape can be associated with the high rate of poverty. The victims are equally poor and come from poor backgrounds. Therefore a less harsh sentence is not appropriate when we look at socio-economic factors. They do not constitute a mitigating factor,” said Revelas.
She said: “Raping a mentally retarded person is a perverse act,” said Revelas.
Revelas sentenced Ndleleni to life imprisonment, and ordered that his name be registered in the National Register for Sex Offenders.
She also refused leave to appeal the sentence.
