“I’m here to tell the truth about what Uncle Ronald did to me.”
This small voice echoed inside the East London high court on Tuesday from a TV monitor.
A little girl was continuing her testimony against her “uncle”, Ronald Leon, 46, after a query from judge Gerald Bloem.
Leon has pleaded not guilty to raping the child at a preschool in Qonce in October 2024 when she was four years old.
In the event of a conviction, the state has called for life imprisonment.
The child, testifying with the assistance of an intermediary, told the court that she was left alone in the preschool with Leon when her teacher went to a shop to buy sweets.
The other children had gone home and her mother had not yet arrived to fetch her.
It is the state’s case that the accused lived at the preschool, which was housed in the school owner’s home, with the teacher.
After the assault, the child said, she went to watch television in the teacher’s room until her mother arrived.
“My mom was at work and she usually picked me up at night or during the day. My mother came to fetch me.”
She, her mother and her aunt then drove to to a grocer, and while her mother was in the shop she described to her aunt what happened.
The girls said the trio went to a fast-food franchise and her mother accompanied her to the toilet.
After that they went home.
Bloem put it to her that her mother had testified that after leaving the diner they went to the police station and then to Grey Hospital.
The child said she had made a mistake. She agreed that they went to the police station and hospital.
She said a woman doctor examined her.
Asked if someone were to say it was a male doctor who examined her, she responded: “Hayi bo, it was a female doctor.”
The girl’s testimony was delayed for about two hours as there was a struggle to find a set of headphones for her.
There were also issues with the recording machine.
The girl is due to continue testifying on Wednesday.
Dr Bahlakona Letsholo, who examined the child at the Thuthuzela Care Centre, also testified, telling the court that he had sedated the child because she was restless.
Letsholo said the child had bruises to her private parts and that, including other observations, led him to conclude there had been penetration.
The accused remains out on bail.
Daily Dispatch
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