The Ekurhuleni District unit of the Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences (FCS) have this morning, 2 September 2020, arrested an Ivory Park woman for demanding compensation from an alleged rapist’s family instead of opening a case.
The woman’s 11-year-old daughter was allegedly raped early last month by a 19-year-old known to the family. Upon being informed by the victim, the woman visited the suspect’s family, entered into some negotiations and was promised R5,000.00 and payment for the doctor’s consultation fees. A certain portion of the money was paid to the woman, and it was when the outstanding money was not forthcoming that the woman decided to open a case of rape and kidnapping against the 19 year-old suspect.
She has been charged with contravening the Section 54 of Sexual Offences and Related Matters Act of 2020 which obliges her to report this matter to the police. She is expected to appear in the Tembisa Magistrate’s Court on Thursday.
The Station Commander of the Ivory Park SAPS, Brigadier David Mbongeni Ngcobo, has expressed shock at this parent’s behaviour for not acting in the best interest of the child. “As the parents we have an obligation to report incidents such as this one to the police in order for the victim to get all the justice they deserve and to protect other potential victims from people such as this 19-year-old,”
Brigadier Ngcobo said failure to report crime, especially crime as serious as this one, amounts to a huge betrayal of the victim,
