IN THE HIGH COURT OF SOUTH AFRICA 
(WESTERN CAPE HIGH COURT, CAPE TOWN)

In the matter between:
THE STATE
and
THEMBALANI DOTWANA

SENTENCE

Mr Dotwana for purposes of sentence, I am going to treat all four counts as one. Not so long ago I confirmed that you were convicted properly by the lower courts and now we are reaching a stage when I have to decide on an appropriate sentence to be meted out to you.

Let me tell you what goes through the mind of any judicial officer when he has to sentence. There are three factors that are normally taken into account, it is the crime, the criminal and the interest of the community. Let us deal with crime, rape, and in your case it is two counts of rape, is a very serious crime which involves the invasion of a woman's privacy. What makes it even worse in your case is the fact that you abused the relationship of trust, the complainant is your stepdaughter. At the time when these crimes were committed, you were living together and you are still married to the mother of the complainant.

If we turn to the interest of the criminal, I am not going to rehash that, because it has already been captured electronically when you gave evidence earlier today. I do want to say even though you were convicted of theft in 1992 and you were sentenced accordingly, I am going to disregard that in its entirety for purposes of today. It is an irrelevant previous conviction completely. A further reason for disregarding it, is because it occurred in 1992, it is more than ten years old. I have no intention to rehash the evidence that you led, except to say that for all practical purposes I am going to treat you as a first offender.

Turning to the third factor, the need to protect the interest of the community. That is a very important factor, because crimes of this nature, rape, particularly in the Western Cape, are on the rise.    More and more every day our courts are flooded because of rape cases. I have no doubt that women, and particularly young children, are the most vulnerable groups in our communities and there is no doubt to my mind that they are looking up to these courts for protection against people who commit crimes of this nature.

HLOPHE, JP
24/11/2011