BULAWAYO – Rape convict Siqokoqela Mphoko has been granted ZWL200 000 bail by the Bulawayo High Court pending appeal against his conviction and 20-year jail sentence for raping his 12-year-old niece.
The business executive and son to former Vice President Phelekezela Mphoko was convicted for three counts of the crime last month following a full trial.
Mphoko later filed an application for bail through his lawyer Thabekhulu Dube, of Ncube and Partners.
The State, led by prosecutor Thobekani Mathanzima Nyathi, did not oppose the bail application.
Nyathi conceded that Mphoko had prospects of success on appeal against his conviction in respect of the three counts of rape.
In his application, Mphoko highlighted that evidence presented before the courts noted that the identification of the person who violated the girl was discovered after threats by her mother that she will send her to the police if she did not say the name of the person who raped her.
“We concede that the Applicant has a fighting chance against conviction in respect of the three counts of rape,” Nyathi said.
“…The requirements for admissibility of a complaint are that it must have been made voluntarily and not as a result of questions of a leading and inducing or intimidating nature.
“It must have been made without undue delay and at the earliest opportunity, in all the circumstances, to the first person to whom the complainant could reasonably be expected to make it.”
Nyathi said since the complaint was made as a result of threats against the complainant, the complaint that she made to her mother that she was raped by the Applicant is inadmissible.
“The Applicant, therefore, enjoys a fighting chance on Appeal against conviction in respect of the rape counts.”
Dube, the lawyer, said the issue of admissibility was mentioned in the judgment passed by Magistrate Singano.
“It is clear that there are challenges in the admissibility of the complaint due to the evidence led from the complainant and that of the mother.
“The complainant told the court that as she left the doctor’s room, her mother threatened to take her to the police and be beaten up until she told the doctor what had happened,” the judgment read.
“If we are to compare this with her mother’s version of evidence on this point it is viewed almost the same.
“The mother told the court that, ‘it was at the doorsteps at the doctor that I told her that I would take her where we got the forms from, meaning the police request forms and leave her there so that she would tell the police what happened or who sexually abused her’.
“If this statement is taken as it is, then one can argue that indeed the mother was threatening the daughter here hence the complaint is inadmissible.”
