Breaking: Senior MK Party Politician Arrested For Raping His Daughter
The uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party in Mpumalanga is calling on authorities to deal harshly with one of its senior members accused of raping his teenage stepdaughter and 21-year-old niece.
The man appeared briefly in the Belfast Magistrate’s Court yesterday facing rape charges, and the case was postponed to 29 April for a formal bail application.
Senior MK member charged
The man, who is in his early 40s and cannot be named to protect the identity of the victims, allegedly started raping them some years ago, but last week the victims decided to report the matter to the police.
MK Mpumalanga’s Busisiwe Mkhwebane said the party “learnt with profound shock and disgust of the alleged sexual abuse.
“The perpetrator is alleged to have repeatedly raped the victims over several years. We are told the abuse started when the victims were still young,” she said .
“As a revolutionary organisation that has always placed the protection of women and children at the centre of its struggle, MK unequivocally and unreservedly condemns this [alleged] barbaric, incestuous abuse in the strongest possible terms.
“There is no place in our society, nor in our organisation, for such monstrous acts and we view this crime as a direct betrayal of everything MK stands for.”
Mkhwebane also called on her party members and the public to support the traumatised victims and their family members.
Violent and arrested for assault – community member
A community member, who asked to remain anonymous, alleged the man is violent and he has been arrested on several occasions for assault.
“I have known this man for a long time, and he used to intimidate his fellow business people and community members who do not agree with him.”
President Cyril Ramaphosa has declared the women and child abuse crisis a national disaster.
Mpumalanga police spokesperson Colonel Mavela Masondo did not respond to a request for comment, but a source in the South African Police Service has confirmed that they were working on the case to obtain more information.
