An Eastern Cape man, who raped and killed a two-year-old child while her mother passed out at a local tavern, has been sentenced to two life terms.
After raping and stabbing the child, leaving her for dead, Zondani Gweza Bobo, returned to the same tavern and drank again and conversed with the child’s mother and other patrons.
He pleaded not guilty to both counts of rape and killing the minor on June 6 last year near Ndlovini informal settlement in Bedford.
Both sentences will run concurrently, effectively he will serve one life term.
Bobo was also declared unfit to work with children.
Sentencing Bobo in the Makhanda high court recently, Judge Avinash Govindjee said while Bobo made certain admissions, he proclaimed his innocence by concocting a fanciful tale in the face of overwhelming evidence, including a DNA match, that revealed his criminal conduct.
Evidence before court revealed that Bobo raped, stabbed and applied deadly blunt force trauma to the head of the child, severing the neck vessels and breaking the top and base of the skull, before simply abandoning her half-naked body and returning to the tavern to continue with an evening of merriment.
“While he is a first offender, this shows a flagrant disregard for the sanctity of human life and offends our society’s constitutional values to their core,” Govindjee said.
It was the state’s case that Bobo was at Mpho’s Tavern where the child was with her mother.
He was seen carrying the child out of the tavern and walked straight across the tar road and towards a dark space. This was in the direction of the home of the father of the child. At that time he was inebriated.
Bobo returned to the tavern approximately 40 minutes later and continued consuming alcohol and was in good spirits.
When asked where the child was, he said that he had taken her to her father. Bobo’s clothing had blood spots on both shoulders, which had not been visible previously that evening. Bobo explained that he was involved with slaughtering animals.
Among the state witnesses, some of whom were eyewitnesses, the child’s mother testified that she had been at Mpho’s Tavern with her two children at 5.30pm on the night in question. She had been drunk upon arrival. She arranged for the purchase of more liquor and had been talking to another patron before they were joined by Bobo, who she observed playing with the deceased child before she passed out.
When she woke up, she realised that they had all left. Now in a more sober condition, she proceeded to the home of the child’s father, who informed her that he did not know the whereabouts of the child.
She then went to Bobo’s home in search of her child. Bobo told her he did not know where the child was and denied that the child had been sitting on his lap.
He said he had left the child with the child’s father and the father’s maternal aunt.
The mother looked for the child to no avail and returned to confront Bobo once again. He now informed her that the child was ‘safe wherever she was’ and became angry when she questioned him further.
Bobo, a first-time offender, stayed alone in Bedford. He has been in custody for a year and four months since his arrest before his conviction.
Govindjee said: “The deceased was a defenceless toddler, assaulted, raped and murdered by Mr Bobo.”
He said incidents of rape and murder of a child always evoke “outrage and revulsion from the citizenry”.
“Society demands that the most severe sentences be meted out,” the judge said.
He said that Bobo is a first offender, had consumed alcohol before committing the offences, has been in custody for more than a year and his relatively low level of education pale into insignificance when considering the gravity of the offences for which he has been convicted.
He said there was also little to support the claim that Bobo was a suitable candidate for rehabilitation.
“The rape and murder perpetrated, atrocious and repulsive as these crimes are, were made more repugnant considering the age of the victim, he said.
Daly Dispatch
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