'Father hacks dog before raping his infant'

A neighbour of a man who has been charged with the rape of his infant has told of how he responded to cries for help by the accused’s girlfriend only to find that a dog had been hacked to death and the second time, he was informed of the sexual assault.

The incidents happened two hours apart, said the neighbour who spoke on condition of anonymity. He said the first time he heard the woman scream, he rushed to the back room behind a workshop in Krokedile Drift West, Brits, in the North West, where he found the dog in a pool of blood.

“There was a panga next to it. I saw him sitting on the couch with his head between his knees. I asked him what was wrong but he didn’t answer,” said the neighbour. 

He said he asked the mother of the baby what happened and she told him that the man had killed it. 

“We cleaned up and thereafter I went back to work,” said the neighbour. 

But two hours later, he said he heard the woman scream again and he rushed there.

“I was confused at first because on my way to the house, people would stop and tell me, ‘Hey that guy raped the baby’. I thought they were talking about the [couple’s] five-year-old child. I never thought they would be talking about the one-month-old baby.”

He said when he arrived, the man was standing outside. 

“I went inside the room and saw the mother crying. I asked what happened and she told me that he raped the baby. I then went to go get help while some people contacted the police.”

The father appeared in the Brits magistrate’s court on Monday and the case was postponed due to absence of an interpreter, said National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Lumka Mahanjana.

His name is being withheld to protect the identities of his children.

Brits police spokesperson Maria Nkabinde said the child had been moved to George Mukhari Hospital in Pretoria. 

Another neighbour, Simon Vuma, said he was called to transport mother and child to a local hospital.

He said he had also transported the mother to hospital on September 16 when she went into labour. 

Vuma said the suspect and the mother started living in the area in February after the accused was fired from his job for allegedly attacking his boss. 

“His brother was called to come and get him in Pretoria after his boss fired him. He worked on a farm and one day, he grabbed his boss by the throat and people had to stop him. “When he came here, he was admitted to the Brits hospital until April and had been fine for a while until late in May,” said Vuma. 

The couple’s landlord, Francis Monono, said the family had been renting their own room for six weeks. 

The case was postponed to next week.

mashalek@sowetan.co.za