The mother of a pupil who was raped at school and then sexually assaulted by a police officer investigating the case, says they are now being failed by the slow wheels of justice.

The pupil, 12, who cannot be named to protect her identity, was first raped together with 86 other schoolgirls at AB Xuma Primary School in October 2017.

Cst Oscar Hlongwane, who was one of the investigating officers in the schoolgirls’ rape and sexual assault case, is accused of abusing two of the girls in March 2018.

This matter has been on the roll for nearly four years in the Protea magistrate’s court and it was postponed again due to the insufficient number of intermediaries – court personnel who assist child witnesses with evidence-related questions from the prosecution, defence or magistrate. 

The mother said her daughter’s mental health had been severely affected as the case had not been concluded. 

“My daughter has been going to court since 2017 with other children in the case of Mkhulu [Johannes Molefe] until he was acquitted [in December 2018] and she also had this case with the officer. It’s too much for her,” said the mother. 

“They [court officials] told me that they were postponing the matter because they did not have enough intermediaries to help conduct trial proceedings,” she said.

The mother of the second child in Hlongwane’s case withdrew her daughter from the case last year, citing delays in the case.

She said the matter was traumatic to her daughter and was taking its toll on the entire family.

She said this was not the first time the case was being postponed due to a shortage of intermediaries as it had happened in January. 

Hlongwane, who pleaded not guilty to the charge, was attached to the family violence, child protection and sexual offences investigations unit in Meadowlands, Soweto, at the time of the incident. 

He was removed from the unit after the allegations surfaced and was moved to the SAPS provincial headquarters in Parktown, Johannesburg, where he assists with logistics.

He was arrested and granted R5,000 bail in August 2018.

The mother said her daughter had given testimony in August and was due to be cross-examined by Hlongwane’s lawyer but that did not happen.

“My daughter is suffering from anxiety and you can see that she is not the same child she was. She is shy and she is not as talkative as she once was.”

She said she lost faith in the justice system after Molefe was acquitted.

A senior court official on Tuesday told Sowetan that the Protea magistrate’s court was bedevilled by a number of issues, which made it hard to conclude sexual offences cases involving minors.

The official who spoke on condition of anonymity said these included shortages of intermediaries, dysfunctional recording machines and CCTVs that enabled victims to give testimony from a separate room to prevent them from coming into contact with the accused. 

“Cases involving minors can take up to four years to conclude. Ideally, we would like to conclude them as soon as possible but that is not realistic. Cases are stuck on a court roll for lengthy periods because there aren’t enough intermediaries or because of the broken equipment. It prejudices against child victims.” 

He said out of nine courtrooms in the court, only one was usable for the purposes of conducting proceedings related to sexual offences involving minors.

“Child victims do not have a good memory. When a case takes long to conclude, they forget some of the details contained in their statements and this has an adverse bearing on the outcome of the case,” he said. 

The official said that intermediaries fell under the department of justice on a contractual basis and were often retired teachers, social workers and nurses.  

The department’s spokesperson Stephans Mahlangu said he could not immediately respond to questions sent to him as their systems had been hacked.

A prosecutor at the court who also spoke on condition of anonymity said the unavailability of intermediaries had been a big causal factor for delays in concluding cases. 

“That is not something we are in control of. We submit a request to the department and they let us know if we will be able to get an intermediary or not.”

Spokesperson for Women and Men against Child Abuse Ngaa Murombedzi said the girl’s situation was not unique as other cases were riddled with the same issues. 

“People often wonder why parents decide to withdraw charges against those who are accused of sexually assaulting their children. It's because the criminal justice system is failing children. People forget about the trauma children experience when their court cases are drawn out,” she said.