MBOMBELA – The Provincial Commissioner of Police for Mpumalanga, Lt Genl Mondli Zuma, has expressed his elation about the sentence handed down to a child rapist on Monday, October 16. The Secunda Regional Court sentenced a 69-year-old man to life imprisonment for the rape of a five-year-old girl in September 2011. Aaron Baloi, who is well known in his community, lured the victim into his room by offering her some sweets where he brutally raped her. He then threatened the young victim and instructed her not to tell anyone about her ordeal.

At the time of the crime the child’s family - when they could not find her where she was supposed to be playing with other children, including Baloi’s own grandchildren - launched a search for her. They found her later that evening in a very distraught state. She was clearly in pain and when they asked her what was wrong, she told her parents that she had injured herself while playing with the other children.

She was taken to hospital where it was discovered that she had been raped. Due to the severity of her injuries, the victim had to be transferred to the Baragwanath Hospital for further medical treatment.

During the trial, the court found that this brutal act had traumatised the now 11-year-old victim and her family severely, as the perpetrator had been a trusted and respectable man in the community.

In passing sentence, the magistrate stressed that, what Baloi did, was evil and should never be allowed in the society we live in, therefore he was not fit to walk around freely. “Children are the future of our country, adults’ core responsibility is to make sure that kids are safe and protected. But you took advantage of the young child’s trust. Therefore people like you must be removed from society,” the magistrate concluded.

Submitted by: Col Mtsholi Bhembe
Subeditor: Lynette Brink / Letter Linguist
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