Times Of Swaziland: ‘POLICE BEAT ME UP FOR  REPORTING RAPE BY DAD’

‘POLICE BEAT ME UP FOR  REPORTING RAPE BY DAD’
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 BY JOSEPH ZULU  on 14/01/2019 08:39:00


PIGG’S PEAK – Police officers had the opportunity to prevent a girl from
falling pregnant but they allegedly failed her.
When *Nani reported her father *Dumo for allegedly raping her, she was instead
allegedly beaten up inside the police station where she had gone to seek refuge.
Nani revealed this while testifying against her father on Saturday before
Pigg’s Peak Principal Magistrate Joe Gumedze.
She alleged that a police officer hit her using a case register while another 
officer held her hands.
The officers are alleged to have been female according to Nani who said the
alleged assault happened in 2014 when she was aged 15.
Birth
In 2016, Nani gave birth to a baby girl whom she said was born from the alleged
continued rape by her father. She believes that had the police arrested her
father when she first reported the rape in 2014, she would not have fallen
pregnant.
Dumo, who was employed by one of the big local corporate entities as a cattle
herder, is accused of raping his daughter several times and that the alleged
ordeal started in 2006 when his daughter was aged seven.
Nani said the alleged rape was initially reported at Buhleni Police Post but
because it was said to have happened in Siphofaneni, Nani was instead referred
to the Siphofaneni Police Station where she ended up allegedly being assaulted.
She also told the court that while the police officers were allegedly assaulting
her, one of them told her that it was people like her who turned convicted
serial killer David Simelane into a murderer.
Simelane was convicted of killing several women including some children and was
reported as having blamed it on his earlier incarceration in which he is said to
have been wrongfully convicted of rape.
Of note, Nani and her father at some point lived in Malkerns where Simelane
killed his victims.
Nani’s father even told the court that he once played for Malkerns Football
Club. The girl said after the alleged assault by the police officers, one of
them offered her money for transport to go back home but that before leaving the
police station, she noticed that her father was also within the premises.
Passed
Nani said she passed without speaking to him and headed for the bus stop. Her
father, in his defence, said he did in fact speak to his daughter and that he
was the one who told her to board a bus.
Nani said when she boarded the bus, her father also got on board and occupied
the seat behind hers.
She said when she got off the bus, her father also alighted despite that they
were not supposed to drop off at the same place.
Dumo is then alleged to have taken his daughter to the bush where he asked her
why she had reported him to the police.
“He then tied me with a piece of wire and threatened to hang me unless I
apologise,” said Nani.
She said despite apologising, her father did not accept the apology and ordered
that for her to show that she was sorry, she should have sex with him. Dumo then
allegedly raped his daughter at the time as a way of punishing her for reporting
to the police that he had raped her.
Nani told the court that her father often had sex with her three times a day and
that this continued until February 20, 2018.
Her father was eventually arrested by Constable Thando Dlamini from the  Buhleni
Police Post where he heads the Domestic Violence and Children’s Protection
Unit. Dlamini is yet to testify in court in the same matter.
Nani also said she then reported the matter to her mother, who also blamed her
for being promiscuous.
She told the court that for that reason, she then continued having sexual
intercourse with her father without any resistance because she could not get any
help anywhere.
Chief Police Information and Communications Officer Superintendent Phindile
Vilakati, when reached for comment on the matter regarding the assault of the
girl at Siphofaneni Police Station, said she could not comment on a matter which
was still a subject of a court case.