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During his appearance in the Kimberley Magistrate’s Court on Monday, local freelance journalist Douglas Notozonke Mthukwane accused the State of “colluding” with a journalist from the “racist” DFA newspaper to keep him in custody.
Mthukwane is facing three charges of rape, after he allegedly raped a 33-year-old woman last month.
Mthukwane opted to conduct his own defence during the opposed schedule 6 bail application.
Before the investigating officer, Sergeant Charlotte Mokgari, continued her evidence as a State witness in the bail application, Mthukwane lashed out at the State prosecutor, Edwin Malawane, saying that he found the prosecutor’s conduct “unethical and unbecoming of a legal practitioner” after he (Mthukwane) was brought from Correctional Service to court on June 3 while he was only scheduled to appear in court on June 5.
“On this day (June 3), I was kept in the court’s holding cells, not properly dressed, having fits and seizures, while I was not called to appear,” Mthukwane stated.
“He (Malawane) was speaking to the journalist of the racist DFA newspaper, who is in court today [Monday]. He is colluding with the media to sway the public to not grant me bail. The DFA has an agenda against me, they want to destroy me.”
To this, Malawane responded that he had no interest in the case and was just there for the bail application, adding that he did speak to the journalist concerned, outside of the courtroom, telling her that the matter would be postponed as the magistrate was not available.
Magistrate Doll Mokoto explained that the State was not responsible for the postponement but that she had forgotten that she had to attend to a family matter and was not available on the date given.
Mthukwane went on, insisting that the prosecution had a “well-calculated plan to keep him in custody” and was using “delaying tactics”.
Mokoto warned Mthukwane to “stop throwing accusations around”.
Mthukwane had previously described the relationship between him and the complainant as “friends with benefits”, saying that they assisted each other financially or otherwise, when needed.
Evidence
Mokgari, from the SAPS Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences unit, continued with her evidence in chief on Monday.
Mokgari had previously indicated that, according to the complainant, she and Mthukwane were friends on Facebook, before they met for the first time when Mthukwane was consulting an initiation school where she (the complainant) was a traditional healer/sangoma student.
Mokgari described the events leading up to the afternoon of May 15, 2019 when the complainant arrived at Mthukwane’s flat in Beaconsfield, after he had agreed to help her with her CV.
“According to the complainant, Mthukwane’s place was ‘filthy’. She told him that he should get a cleaner but he told her that the previous cleaners had accused him of raping them,” Mokgari stated.
She added that, according to the complainant, Mthukwane started screaming at a man who was talking to her when they went to the shop to draw money.
“This is my wife, this is my woman, don’t speak to my woman,” Mthukwane told the man who had asked the complainant if she was from the area.
“Back at Mthukwane’s flat, he addressed the complainant as ‘baby’. She started panicking and had a feeling that something was not right. He then told her: ‘Look me in the eye. I love you and want to make you my wife. Have your ancestors not sent you a message about us getting involved?’”
To which she answered “no”, Mokgari said.
According to the complainant, Mthukwane then started “behaving scarily”, talking to himself and walking up and down.
“According to the complainant, he then came back to her and told her that ‘you are going to sleep with me. I will eat you. I am going to make love to you’.
“After she stated that she ‘did not agree to this’, Mthukwane responded by saying, ‘How can you be like this? I took it that you agreed to sleep with me’.
“After the complainant told him that she was on her period, he became furious and said he would use a condom. He then ordered her to undress. He undressed and placed a condom on his penis. He then grabbed her jeans and pulled them off, together with her panty containing a sanitary pad. He ordered her to take off her bra as he ‘wanted to feel her and be stimulated’,” Mokgari relayed the events, according to the complainant.
Mokgari on Monday continued by saying that Mthukwane then allegedly lay on top of the complainant and started penetrating her, whereafter she pulled him closer by the head, to which he responded “Yes, baby”.
“According to the complainant, he stretched her legs open and she asked to go to the toilet as she was in pain. While sitting on the toilet he told her that if she did not want to be thrown through the window she had to get up immediately. She got up and went back to the bed. Here he again penetrated her.
“She stated that she was crying the whole time and Mthukwane was wiping her face. She further said that Mthukwane’s penis slipped out twice, and that she saw he was not wearing a condom after it slipped out the second time. When she asked him why he had removed the condom, Mthukwane apparently said: ‘I told you I wanted to feel you and wanted skin-on-skin’.
“He continued raping her and according to the victim, she was just ‘lying there, feeling numb and crying’. He eventually screamed ‘Baby, I’m coming”, whereafter the victim pulled back and could feel sperm between her thighs. He asked her why she pulled back as he ‘wanted to make twins with her’.
‘He then told her to go and bath but she got dressed. He also asked her if she was going to lay charges against him and she replied ‘no’, as she was afraid. The accused then went with her to her home, where she told the complainant’s mother that ‘I love your child, I want to pay lobola for her’. “She reported the matter the next day,” Mokgari testified from the complainant’s statement.
Mokgari said that the alleged rapes took place while Mthukwane was on bail for two pending cases of rape and that there was a likelihood that he would commit an offence again if released on bail.
Mthukwane is expected to start his cross-examination of Mokgari when the case continues next week.