Grahamstown police have stated that there is no concrete evidence linking a teacher at a local school to the rape cases of a 7-year-old girl and her 8-year-old brother, both pupils at the school.
Grahamstown police have stated that there is no concrete evidence linking a teacher at a local school to the rape cases of a 7-year-old girl and her 8-year-old brother, both pupils at the school.
The teacher has been suspended by the Department of Education due to the gravity of the allegations. The police are not dragging their feet with regard to the case, said Grahamstown police spokesperson Captain Mali Govender.
Govender said a docket had been sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions last week and Communications Officer for the NPA ,Tshepo Ndwalaza, said a decision still needed to be taken on the issue. Govender said the police could make no arrests until the NPA decided on the docket.
Govender said there was insufficient proof implicating any person, including the teacher in the sexual abuse of the minors and thus the police had no suspects. While biological fluids dogs had been used to search the school's bathrooms for traces of blood and semen, insufficient quantities for collection of either were present. The children had been subjected to routine evaluations by the police forensic psychologist. "There is no doubt that she was raped, but there is no evidence of the exact perpetrator," Govender said.
Recently, protesters from Rhodes University and the Unemployed People's Movement marched in protest against sexual abuse and rape, citing the attacks on the young siblings as examples of the widespread nature of rape culture in South Africa.
