Jacob September v The State

The appellant was convicted in the regional court of rape in contravention of section 3 of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Related Matters) Amendment Act 32 of 2007, read with section 51(1) of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 105 of 1997, and sentenced to life imprisonment. The complainant was 6 years old at the time of the alleged offences (between 2016 and 2019) and 11 years old when she testified. She alleged that the appellant, her maternal grandmother’s husband, raped her on multiple occasions. The complainant’s evidence was taken via an intermediary. Medical evidence showed that the complainant had been sexually penetrated on more than one occasion, but linked the most recent injuries to April 2020, a period outside the charge timeframe and when the appellant was not living with the complainant. The complainant’s paternal grandmother testified about a delayed first report made after pastoral counselling. The appellant denied the allegations and suggested that he had been falsely implicated.

The appeal was upheld; the conviction and sentence were set aside; and the appellant was ordered to be released from custody with immediate effect.

The judgment reinforces the peremptory nature of the statutory requirements governing oaths and admonitions under the Criminal Procedure Act, particularly in cases involving child witnesses. It underscores that once a court finds that a child understands the nature and import of the oath, the child must be sworn in, failing which the testimony is inadmissible. The case also reaffirms the importance of proper admonishment, the application of cautionary rules for child and single witnesses, and the necessity for the state to prove guilt beyond reasonable doubt in serious sexual offence cases.