LAWYER ACCUSED OF SEXUALLY ABUSING HIS 4 DAUGHTERS, NIECE, HELPER

SITEKI - A well-known lawyer has been reported to the police for allegedly sexually abusing his four children, his niece and their domestic helper.

The lawyer is alleged to have impregnated the children and forced them to take abortion tablets. Two of the minors and his helper gave birth allegedly to his children. One of the abused children told the police that she tried to commit suicide several times and another has been removed from the lawyer’s homestead to a safe house. This publication has established that the lawyer took some of the children to the Republic of South Africa for abortion procedures once they fell pregnant. It has been gathered also that one of the children fell pregnant about four times. One of his daughters, his niece and a helper, allegedly gave birth to the attorney’s children after failed abortion attempts at his instance.

Abused

The minors were allegedly sexually abused by the lawyer for years, beginning from when some of them were as young as 12 years old. One of the abused children now works for a security service agency and another is studying in the Republic of South Africa. An investigation by this publication established that members of the community where the attorney resides, who were aware of the alleged sexual abuse experienced by the children at the hands of their father, were enraged that nothing was seemingly being done to the lawyer.
The community members were said to be contemplating taking the law into their own hands due to the snail’s pace at which the matter was being addressed. One of the children, *Lungile, informed the police that ‘everyone at home was blaming me for having sexual intercourse with my father, as if it was my fault’.

Stepsister

She told the police that she lived with her father, stepsister, her brother and a helper in 2006 when she was doing Form I and was 12 years old at the time. She said her stepmother was staying in another town where she was employed and she would visit them on weekends. In the same year, according to Lungile, the lawyer began touching her inappropriately and sexually abusing her and her aunt, who was a year older than her. She alleged that the lawyer would come at night to the room she shared with her aunt and call either of them to his room where he abused them sexually. She alleged that she visited her mother in the neighbouring country during school holidays and when she returned, the lawyer said she was more beautiful and continued to have sexual intercourse with her. Lungile said she was very scared to speak ‘because in my mind I did not believe what was happening to me, that my own father would hurt me like that’. Sometimes when she was asleep, she claimed, she would wake up and find her father undressing her and he would press her to the bed and have sexual intercourse with her. “That was the longest night of my life and the most painful experience,” she informed the police.

Pregnant

Lungile said she fell pregnant and her stepmother asked her about it. She stated that she immediately told her everything and that her father was behind the pregnancy. She alleged that the lawyer had advised her to tell anyone who enquired about her pregnancy that she had sex with a boy during a party. Lungile also alleged that her father did not allow her to visit her maternal homestead when she was pregnant and made arrangements for her to have an abortion in a South African hospital, where he registered her under a false name. She said she fell pregnant several times afterwards.

Police

According to Lungile, her aunt, also fell pregnant by the lawyer and when her family found out about it, they called the police. She said the police arrived at her school and asked about her aunt’s situation and she told them all that she knew, ‘however, they never asked about my situation’. Her aunt was 13 years old at the time. Lungile stated that her stepmother assaulted her when she found out that the lawyer was still having sex with them, and said they thought they were bomgcaki bakhe (sharing a man with her). She said her father called his attorneys and complained that she had been questioned without parental consent. She said there was a time when she and her 13-year-old aunt were both pregnant and the lawyer allegedly took them to a hospital in Schoemansdal, South Africa, to have an abortion.

Hospital

The doctor at the hospital is said to have advised that it would be dangerous to perform the procedure since she was 20 weeks into the pregnancy and her father persuaded the doctor. She alleged that after the abortion, the sexual abuse by her father continued, despite family meetings being held about the matter and her aunt left the lawyer’s residence. She alleged that her father also had a child with their helper and her stepmother terminated her services when she found out that the lawyer was allegedly having sex with her as well. Lungile said during that period, her father was arrested and later released. The minor said she fell pregnant again when she was 15 years old and in Form III. She alleged that her father arranged that she be taken to Nelspruit to have another abortion. She said she came back and the sexual abuse continued and she fell pregnant yet again.

Abortion

She said her father told her that she was aware of the procedure and gave her abortion tablets. Lungile said during that period, she was at her father’s parental homestead and most of the people there knew about her pregnancy and that she had an abortion. She said she then attended school in South Africa and when her permit expired, she returned to Eswatini and her father allegedly continued sexually abusing her and she fell pregnant yet again.  She told the police that the sexual abuse continued and she decided that she could not take it anymore.  She said she started speaking up and fighting her father. She alleged that the family accused her of being disrespectful to elders and causing problems in the family. “I was basically the black sheep of the family and still am.”

When reached for comment, Chief Police Information and Communications Officer Superintendent Phindile Vilakati confirmed that a rape case had been reported to the police and investigations were instituted. Vilakati had been asked whether there was a rape case involving the lawyer in question that had been reported. It has been reliably gathered that the police are working in collaboration with the relevant structures on the matter. *Not real names to protect complainants

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