There is something happening in Siteki. Not holy. Not righteous. No! Spiritual in the sense that the laws of reality themselves no longer apply there, because every week, another man stands before court, admits to violating a child and then walks out freer than a graduate after submitting final exams.
Let’s talk about the 12-year illusion, because the math in Siteki defies all known laws of logic. A 20-year-old man rapes a 16-year-old girl without a condom, risking HIV transmission. The sentence? 12 years. Two 20-year-old schoolboys target a 14-year-old and a 16-year-old. The sentence? 12 years. Three grown men target girls as young as 14 in toilets, villages and shops. The sentence? 12 years. An 18-year-old assaults a 14-year-old so severely that the traumatised child drinks poison the next morning to end her own life. The sentence? 12 years. It is a grand, sweeping number, isn’t it? Twelve years! It sounds heavy. It sounds like a Judiciary with teeth. It sounds like a society saying: “We will protect our children.” But here comes the twist: Every single one of those 12-year sentences was wholly suspended. “You are found guilty of destroying a child’s innocence, exposing her to life-altering diseases and driving her to the brink of suicide. Your punishment? 12 years in prison! Just kidding, go home and finish your chores.”The accused walked out of the courtroom doors before the ink on their conviction sheets was even dry. They didn’t see the inside of a prison cell. They didn’t even have to pay a fine. They got a stern wag of a judicial finger and a ‘don’t do it again’.
The reasoning behind these suspended sentences is where the satire writes itself, though it leaves a deeply bitter taste in the mouth. In the cases of the schoolgoing predators, the learned magistrate lamented that ‘If I take you to jail, your whole life will be ruined’.
Let that sink into your collective consciousness, Eswatini. Read it again until your blood boils. The Judiciary looked at young men who broke the law and shattered the lives of children and the primary concern of the bench was that prison might ruin the rapists’ lives.
What about the 14-year-old girl who woke up on New Year’s Day so utterly broken such that she swallowed a poisonous substance? Is her life not ruined? She spent her holidays in a bed at Good Shepherd Hospital, fighting for her breath, while her attacker was told to ‘focus on his schoolwork and not such extra-curricular activities’. Extra-curricular activities. Since when did the violation of a minor become a hobby? Since when did statutory rape get classified next to the debate society, school football or the choir?
We are comforting the wolves because we are terrified the cage might ruin their fur, while the lambs are bleeding out on the courtroom floor.What is happening in Siteki is a symptom of a much deeper, more malignant rot within our societal fibre. We have become a nation of mitigators. We look at a horror story and immediately look for a reason to soften the blow for the perpetrator.The court records are a catalogue of pathetic excuses accepted as legal currency. One predator was an unemployed schoolboy, another was a shopkeeper who got turned on by a romantic scene on television and another was under the influence of alcohol. We treat the SODV Act like a minor traffic violation. The law clearly states that a child under 18 cannot consent. It does not care if they were in a love relationship. It does not care if they sneaked out after their mother went to sleep. It does not care if they exchanged mobile numbers.
Yet, by constantly highlighting these romantic relationships in mitigation and granting total freedom in return, the court is subtly shifting the blame. It sends a loud, clear message to every predator in the Lubombo Region that ‘If you can convince her to like you first, the law will let you off scot-free’.
Even when the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) tries to step in and fix this circus, the comedy continues. Take the case of the 12-year sentence, which was also completely suspended by the same court. By the time the DPP filed for a High Court review to get some actual semblance of justice, the rapist had already vanished into thin air. A warrant of arrest was issued, but good luck finding him. Why would he stay? The court showed him that the law in Siteki has no teeth, so why respect its boundaries?
Every parent in the Lubombo Region is now raising daughters with the anxiety of somebody guarding cash-in-transit money because the law may arrest the man. One day, years from now, when society asks how violence against girls became normalised, the answer will not only be found in taverns, homes or dark forests. It will also be found in courtrooms where children cried, men apologised and justice blinked first. To the Judiciary in Siteki and to the wider legal framework overseeing this disaster, who are you protecting? Your leniency is not rehabilitation; it is institutional complicity. To society, when do we stop looking away?
Let’s talk about the 12-year illusion, because the math in Siteki defies all known laws of logic.