Ntabankulu man rapes and impregnates 13-year-old stepdaughter
The High Court sitting in Ntabankulu, Eastern Cape sentenced Samkele Mcakacwa (37) to 28 years imprisonment after convicting him for repeatedly raping his step-daughter. Mcakwana entered into a plea and sentence agreement with the state, wherein he pleaded guilty to raping his daughter from his wife. The father started this taboo from when she was aged 11 until she was 13 years, impregnating her in the process.
In his plea explanation, Mcakacwa, who does not share the surname with his now-estranged wife and stepchild, stated that he married the mother of the victim in 2013. In 2017, the victim came to stay with them at their Manaleni location home, in the Ntabankulu district. At an unspecified date in September 2019, the 23-year-old wife left to attend a traditional ceremony at her maiden home. She left Mcakacwa with the then 11-year-old girl and his eight-year-old biological daughter. It is on this day that he raped the older child for the first time before threatening her with death if she told anyone, including her mother.
Mcakacwa admitted having sexual intercourse with the stepdaughter whenever her mother was not home until 17 December 2020. Both the victim and the man could not recall the number of times they had sexual intercourse. The teenager only broke her silence when her aunt noticed that she was pregnant. The discovery was made while her mother had gone to her maiden home to give birth to another child with Mcakacwa, as is custom.
When confronted with the allegations, Mcakacwa convened a family meeting and asked his relatives to resolve the matter before it could reach the authorities. When his family approached the traditional leader (headman), he took them to the police station where they found that a case had already been opened. Mcakacwa fled to KwaZulu-Natal where he was arrested in Bhambayi in March this year. The state Advocate, Banele Mhlongo asked the court to impose a lengthy sentence because not only did the victim drop out of school at a tender age, she gave birth to a child who would be a constant reminder that she was raped by her stepfather.
