MALAIKA MAHLATSI | Can we please witness justice being done in these zama-zama rape cases

A friend of mine, who we will call Limpho, was raped by her father when she was only 10 years old. The case went to trial and after a year of her having to give gruelling testimony in camera, reliving the most traumatic experience that a child should never have to, her father was acquitted.

The judge who presided over the case, an old white man that she describes as having “kind eyes and a warmth about it”, approached her and her family to convey his heartfelt apology for the outcome of the trial. He explained that he was bound by the law to reach the decision he had, due in part to some glaring inconsistencies in Limpho’s testimony.

But he also said that no child that young can recall, in accurate detail, an experience so brutalising and traumatic. He suggested to the family that when Limpho turned 18, she could reopen the case as she would be older and possibly stronger than she was then. Limpho never reopened the case.

I once asked Limpho why she didn’t reopen the case as advised. She told me that just two days after her father raped her, she had gone to the clinic to be forensically examined. There was telling evidence of a sexual assault, but the biological evidence was minimal and as a result, could not be conclusively linked to her perpetrator.

If the evidence of a sexual assault and the words of a 10 year old who had no reason to lie, and who couldn’t have possibly “asked for it”, as women are often accused of doing, could not guarantee a conviction then, then a conviction would not happen almost a decade later. And so, like so many rapists, Limpho’s father walked and continues to live within society as a free man.

I found myself thinking of Limpho’s story when the story of the brutal gang-rape of eight women in Krugersdorp broke. The women were raped at gunpoint by multiple men while shooting a music video at a mine dump in West Village. Within days, more than 80 men were arrested in connection with crimes ranging from illegal mining, illegal immigration, attempted murder and possession of explosives. None has yet been charged with rape.

The police are awaiting results from DNA tests – a process that could take anything from a few weeks to months or even years. SA has a huge DNA backlog that will take years to clear. The victims now have to wait for those results or try to take the case to trial with the existing circumstantial evidence, which is almost certain to result in an acquittal.

If 10-year-old Limpho who could identify her perpetrator and had evidence of sexual assault could not get justice, it’s unlikely that there can be justice in a case where the victims cannot even identify their perpetrators, who were wearing balaclavas. Those DNA tests are the only chance at justice, and even then, it is not guaranteed, because cases with more than forensic evidence have led to acquittals or very short sentences for the perpetrators.

High-profile cases like this one put police under pressure to make arrests. This is often done hastily, with inadequate or substandard investigations undertaken. We have seen it with many cases. It is at the point of police investigation where most cases, particularly rape cases, are lost. For the sake of those eight women, for the sake of all women, may this not happen in this case. For once, may justice be done. Just this once.