An Eastern Cape Pastor who was arrested for allegedly raping a learner at Emaxesibeni is planning to plead not guilty to the charge of rape when the court sits for this case. Pastor Mbongiseni Pakade of the God’s Power Family Church appeared for bail application before the magistrate court of Mount Ayliff on Thursday. He is accused of raping a 16 year old Zanokhanyo Private School learner.
Pastor Pakade told the court that he is going to plead not guilty because he is innocent and does not even know the complainant. “ The complainant is reported to be my daughter’s friend. I don’t know her I have never met her so what is being said here is a lie”.
The state opposed the bail based on a petition signed by the community to the court and the safety of Pastor Pakade to the wrath of the community who are angry about the allegations. Defence lawyer Nqaba Nomvethe threw that argument out of the window, saying that petition was signed by people who do not know about the processes of the court. “They know nothing about the innocent until proven guilty by the competent court of law principle for justice. So we do not even need to read the petition”, said Nomvethe. Something that was accepted by the court. Responding to the issue of safety Nomvethe said, the issue of safety must be the prerogative of the accused. My client has got homes in Ntabankulu and Libode so he can go and stay at one of the places where the affected communities cannot reach him.
The investigating officer also told the court that Pastor Pakade must not be given bail based on the same reasons by the prosecutor which is the safety of Pastor Pakade and that of complainant. When the investigator was cross questioned it was not clear whether the DNA test was available or not. The investigator said the doctor’s report says the complainant is not a virgin. A member of the community, Mawande Mpithi was called to a witness box to tell the court why do members of the community oppose bail for pastor Phakade. He told the court that the incident happened during the 16days of Activism on Violence Against Women and Children. Mphithi also said that there are two other allegations of rape against the accused.
The defence lawyer Nomvethe was shocked especially by the fact that Mphithi quoted case numbers of the alleged cases. Something that was not mentioned by the Investigating Officer. The bail hearing was then postponed to the 20th of January due to time constraints.
Pastor Pakade last appeared before court on the 9th of December. On that day he decided to abandon the bail and his bail application was remanded for 12 of January. Community members got surprised when told that the bail application is continuing in court on the 6th of January. NPA spokesperson Luxolo Thyali said there was a request of an earlier date by the lawyers for the matter to be dealt with.
