DID DAD RAPE DAUGHTER (6)?

MANZINI – Can this be possible? It looks outlandish and unbelievable that a man can rape his six-year old biological daughter.

However, I was drawn to the case by the fact that our sister publication, the Times of Swaziland, reported in July 2018 that a man, who worked for a certain preschool in Manzini, raped a five-year old girl.

It was also reported in January 2019 that a two-year-old toddler was denied justice in the name of tibi tendlu after being raped, allegedly by her grandfather. Tibi tendlu is a siSwati adage meaning sweeping sensitive and shameful matters under the carpet. In short, some emaSwati prefer concealing disgraceful incidents.

I received texted messages and telephone calls last week from anonymous people urging me to take on police officers in Manzini for failing to investigate a serious crime – that of a man who allegedly raped his biological daughter – a six year old girl for that matter.

I have been a journalist for donkey years, but I have never been asked to investigate a case of this nature since I cut my teeth on the profession. It is prudent to declare my interest – I actually love children so much that I can cause harm just to protect them. Therefore, in order to refrain from bias or any element of it thereof, I have to remain ethical and pay allegiance to the dictates of truth, intense and undiluted investigation, honest analysis and judgement. In fact, judgement is for the readers. This is a complicated case to investigate. It was not easy to break new grounds and subsequently unearth unchallengeable outputs.

In fact, the first caller told me: “My brother, there is a man here in Manzini who specialises in raping women, and police do nothing about it. We suspect that police are on his payroll.”

To assess the suspect’s influence and probable wealth that could have power to sway the police from investigating the case as the case may be, I have a question for the whistleblower: “Where does he (rape suspect) work, is he a businessman, and where does he get the money?”

He responded: “He’s unemployed and I actually don’t know where he gets the money. In fact, I don’t think he has the money.” Power is not derived from money only, philosophers say, and on the basis of this, I have to give the whistleblower the benefit of doubt in the sense that I have to look into the matter with keen eyes despite those obvious preconceived theories on my part, given to effect by unanswered questions on the suspect’s source of power to often rise above the law as he had (whistleblower) alleged.

“I will introduce you to a woman this man has raped. She has been his maid for three months,” the whistleblower told me.
He lived up to his promise, and gave me her mobile phone number, which I did not hesitate to dial.
I gave her a pseudonym of Precious while that of the rape suspect is Donald. 
 I introduced myself to Precious (23) and disclosed the subject matter. After I had done so, I could deduce that the woman on the receiving end was sobbing as she narrated her ordeal.

“He raped me, and told me that it would be useless and senseless of me to report the matter to the police because they (police) failed to arrest him when he was accused of raping his daughter,” she said.
She told me it appeared she was not the first victim as several maids who came before her went through the same ‘knife.’  I asked her whwhat made her think that Donald might have raped other women.

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