A 31-year-old man was sentenced to life in prison by the Qumbu Regional Court in the Eastern Cape for raping his late father’s 51-year-old former lover. The woman is the rapist’s step-mother. In order to protect the identities of both his former stepmother and his younger half-brother, the rapist’s identity cannot be revealed.

The woman had been in a relationship with the rapist’s father, according to National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Luxolo Tyali, and they had a child together.

According to Tyali, shortly after his father died in 2018, the rapist had a brief love engagement with the woman. He claimed the woman ended her relationship with the rapist not long after it began.

The rapist’s father, according to Tyali, was the family’s breadwinner.When the victim’s father died, his son stepped in and obtained temporary work to feed her and her kid.

“He saw himself as the new household’s leader, and he took advantage of the new mother’s unemployment and desperation. He was shopping for baby formula and other necessities for the child while also caring for her (the woman).”

The romance, according to Tyali, did not continue long.

“She told the court she felt pressured to discontinue the connection because the community did not approve of her [having a relationship with her late partner’s kid], thus she felt ashamed,” Tyali said.

According to Tyali, the woman was travelling alone in their village of Nondyandya in the Qumbu area on the night of December 12, 2020.”He instructed her to accompany him to his home and when she refused, he assaulted her with a stick, strangled and dragged her to his home, where he raped her,” said Tyali.

The following morning, the victim reported her ordeal to the Katkop police station and the rapist was subsequently arrested.The rapist denied ever meeting the victim on the night in issue during the trial.

Prosecutor Bulelani Bhidla, on the other hand, produced a medical report confirming that the woman had been sexually attacked and sustained injuries consistent with a blunt object assault. She, too, had been strangled.

The rapist’s allegation that the victim could have wounded herself because she was inebriated was dismissed by Magistrate Noluthando Conjwa.

Conjwa agreed with the prosecutor’s assertion that the rapist was obliged to protect the woman because she was his half-brother’s, mother, but instead preyed on her fragility.

Conjwa convicted the man and sentenced him to life imprisonment for rape and 12 months for assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

The sentences will run concurrently.