DIE HOOGSTE HOF VAN APPÈL
VAN SUID-AFRIKA
Rapporteerbaar
SAAK NR : 397/04
In die saak tussen :
JOHAN MARX Appellant
- en -
DIE STAAT Respondent
________________________________________________________________________
Coram: STREICHER, CAMERON & NUGENT ARR
Verhoor: 9 MEI 2005
Gelewer: 23 AUGUST 2005
Opsomming: Verkragting – onsedelike aanranding – niet eenstaande die
verwerping van appellant se getuienis nie bo redelike twyfel bewys
dat gemeenskap en betasting so nder klaagster se toestemming
plaasgevind het nie – oortreding van art 14(1)(b) van Wet 23 van
1957 – art 3(1)(b) van Wet 45 van 1988 – toestemming tot die
toelating van hoorsê-getuienis by wyse van die uitlokking daarvan
– erkenning van 'n feit by wyse van die stel daarvan as 'n feit
gedurende kruisondervraging.
________________________________________________________________________
U I T S P R A A K
________________________________________________________________________
STREICHER AR
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STREICHER AR:
[1] Die appellant is in die stree khof te Bellville skuldigbevind aan
verkragting en onsedelike aanranding en gevonnis tot 10 jaar gevangenisstraf ten
opsigte van die verkragting en twee jaar gevangenisstraf samelopend met die 10
jaar gevangenisstraf, ten opsigte van di e onsedelike aanranding. 'n Appèl deur
hom na die Hoë Hof te Kaapstad w as onsukesesvol en met die verlof van
laasgenoemde hof (‘die hof a quo’) appèlleer hy nou na hierdie hof.
[2] Die aanklag teen die appella nt was dat die onsedelike aanranding
plaasgevind het gedurende die tydperk Augustus 1997 tot Oktober 1999 en dat
die verkragting plaasgevind het gedurende die periode Maart 1998 tot Oktober
1999. Volgens die klaagster het sy op 9 Oktober 1997 16 jaar oud geword.
[3] Die appellant het onskuldig ge pleit op beide aanklagte. In sy
pleitverduideliking ingevolge art 115 van die Strafproseswet 55 van 1977 het hy
erken dat hy ongeveer gedurende die pe riode Julie tot Augustus 1999 in die
slaapkamer van sy huis aan di e klaagster se bobeen en privaatdeel gevat het en
dat hy sy vinger in haar vagina gedruk het. Hy het ook erken dat hy op 9
Oktober 1999 te sy huis gemeenskap met die klaagst er gehad het. In beide
gevalle het dit volgens hom geskied me t die toestemming en medewerking van
die klaagster.
[4] Die klaagster en die appellant het mekaar in 1997 ontmoet. Op daardie
stadium was die klaagster in standard agt op skool. Na die ontmoeting en wel tot
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Oktober 1999 het die klaagster op 'n gereel de basis die kinders van die appellant
by sy huis opgepas en het sy dikwels, veral oor naweke, daar oorgebly.
[5] Volgens die klaagster was die appellant 'n vriend van haar pa en het sy
hom ontmoet toe hy op 'n geleentheid by hulle aan huis kom rugby kyk het. Die
appellant het toe gevra of sy nie sou be langstel om sy kinders van tyd tot tyd op
te pas nie. Sy het ingest em om dit te doen. Sy he t getuig dat die ontmoeting
plaasgevind het in Junie 1997. In 'n verk laring wat sy op 23 Oktober 2000 aan
die polisie gemaak het, het sy gesê dat die ontmoeting in Augustuts 1997
plaasgevind het. Sy het getuig dat di e appellant gedurende die September
vakansie aan haar begin va t het en ‘goeters’ begin sê het wat haar ongemaklik
laat voel het. Hy het onder andere aan haar dinge gesê soos: ‘My vrou gaan nou-
nou winkel toe, dan is ek en jy alleen’; en ‘Daar gaan 'n man kom wat jou kan
sag maak.’
[6] Die vattery van die appellant het aldus die klaagster al verder en verder
gegaan. Mettertyd het hy onder andere aan haar bors geva t. Sy het dan sy hand
weggeklap en gesê sy hou nie daarvan nie. Hy het dan sy hand weggevat en later
dit weer gedoen. Soms het hy haar daarna vi r 'n tydlank geïgnoreer en gesê sy is
lelik met hom. Op 'n Saterdagaand, ongev eer drie maande na hulle ontmoeting
en steeds gedurende die September vakansie, toe di e klaagster weer by die
appellant se huis oorgeslaa p het, het die appellant se eggenote, mev Marx, haar
gevra om saam televisie te kyk. Die televisiestel was in die appellant se
slaapkamer. Die klaagster en mev Marx het saam op die bed gelê. Die klaagster
het reeds haar slaapklere aangehad. Di e appellant het die kamer binnegekom en
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tussen hulle gaan sit. Late r het hy vir mev Marx gevra om te gaan stort en haar
lekker aan te trek. Almal het op daardie stadium onde r 'n kombers gelê. Die
gebeure wat daarop gevolg he t, terwyl mev Marx geba d het, is aanvanklik so
deur die klaagster beskryf:
‘En hy druk toe sy . . . sy hand by my broek in. En ek sê vir hom, nee. En ek probeer
sy hand so trek. En hy druk sy hand so teen my vas en hy sê, “Wag nou. Wag net gou.” Ek sê
vir hom, nee. En hoe meer ek vir hom nee sê, sê hy vir my, “Wag net gou”. Hy was dronk, in
elk geval dronk. En toe kom hy nader en hy druk sy vinger in my geslagsdeel. En hoe meer ek
vir hom sê, moenie, hoe dieper druk hy dit in. En toe sy vrou kom, toe trek hy dit skielik . . .
toe hy nou hoor sy gaan nou uit die badkamer uit kom, toe trek hy sy vinger uit.’
Sy het later bygevoeg:
‘Ek het sy hand probeer uittrek. Hy wou nie sy hand los nie. Ek kon nie opspring nie,
want hy bly my terugdruk.
. . .
Ek het probeer opstaan en probeer om sy hand we g te kry, maar ek kon nie, want hy is baie
sterker as ek.
. . .
Hy het net gesê ek moet sjuut, ek moet sagter, sy vrou is daar.
. . .
Dit is aaklig, hy het dit net gedoen. En hoe verder hy gaan, hoe meer ek sy hand vasdruk om
dit nie te doen nie, maar hy het nie gehoor nie, hy het dit nou maar net gedoen.’
[7] Die klaagster het ook h aar aksies beskryf as: ‘Gekeer en gedruk om hom
uit te haal.’ Op die vraag hoe die appellant dit reggekry het om sy vinger in haar
privaatdeel te druk as sy onwillig was, het die klaagster vroeër geantwoord: ‘Ja,
ek het gesit, ek het toegeknyp en ek het my hand gevat en ek het sy hand probeer
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uittrek. Ek het TV gekyk, d it was onverwags, dit is ni e asof ek gesit en wag het
dat hy sy hand in my broek gaan druk nie. Want ek het nie verwag dat so iets
met my gaan gebeur nie. . . . hy was by die helfte van my ge slagsdeel, toe is sy
hand al . . . toe kom ek dit agter.’ Kort na hierdie getuienis het sy egter toegegee
dat sy nie haar bene toegek nyp het nie en het sy gesê dat sy nie weet hoekom sy
dit nie gedoen het nie. Sy het wel sy hand vasgedruk ‘sodat (sy) dit kan stop,
sodat hy dit kan uittrek’. La ter het sy getuig dat sy met albei hande probeer het
om sy hand uit te trek. Sy het, in stryd met haar vro eëre getuienis dat sy probeer
het om op te staan, getuig dat sy nie probeer het om op te staan nie en dat sy nie
hard gepraat het uit vree s dat mev Marx sou hoor. Op die vraag hoekom sy nie
geloop het toe mev Marx teruggekeer het nie was haar antwoord:
‘Sy het my gevra om te bly om die video te kyk. Ek het gebly . . . ek wou so veel as
moontlik by haar gewees het. Sy was vir my, soos ek al tienduisend keer gesê het, soos 'n
vriendin. Ek sou . . . daar was 'n stadium wat ek by haar wou bly, omdat ek die aandag gekry
het wat ek nie by my ouerhuis gekry het nie. . . . ek wou haar nie verloor nie, ek wil nie hê sy
moet weet nie.’
[8] Toe mev Marx terugkom het die appe llant volgens die klaagster sy hand
vinnig uitgepluk. Mev Marx het langs hom gaan sit en hy het gemaak asof niks
gebeur het nie. Mev Marx het aan die slaap geraak en die klaagster het moeg
geraak, waarop sy na haar kamer gegaan het en gaan slaap het.
[9] Dit is ten opsigte van hier die voorval (‘hierna genoem die
betastingsvoorval’) dat die streekhof die appellant skuldig bevind het op die klag
van onsedelike aanranding.
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[10] Na die betastingsvoorval het die klaa gster nog gereeld na die appellant se
huis gegaan. Sy het ook dikwels weer s aam met die appellant en sy vrou video
gekyk in hulle slaapkamer. Die volgende he t dan gebeur terwyl hulle regop in
die bed gesit het met 'n duvet oor hulle:
‘. . . dan sal hy sy hand so om sit en met sy hande afvroetel en my knope losmaak en aan my
borste vat. En dan kan ek nie boe of ba nie, want sy vrou sit langs my. En wat sê ek vir haar as
ek rondbeweeg en my hemp hang oop en wat nou. Hy het altyd vir my in 'n posisie . . .
situasie gesit waar ek nie regtig kon uitkom nie.
. . .
En later het hy ook sy een been oor my been gegooi, so teen my geskuur met sy been. Of hy
het sy voet gevat en so op en af teen my geskuur. Hy het baie keer ook my hand gevat en dit
dan op sy geslagsorgaan gesit. En ek het dit altyd weggeruk, want ek wil nie my hand daar
naby hê nie.’
[11] Kort na die betastingsvoorval, op die klaagster se 16de verjaarsdag, het
sy na die appellant, wat op dieselfde dag verjaar het, gegaan om hom geluk te
wens met sy verjaarsdag en aan hom 'n kaartjie te oorhandig. Mev Marx was nie
tuis nie. Volgens die klaagster het die appellant haar meer as 'n normale soen
gegee en aan haar borste ge vat. Sy het nie getuig da t sy op hierdie geleentheid
haar enigsins teëgesit het of dat dit haar nie geval het nie.
[12] Die klaagster het getuig dat sy we er en weer teruggeg aan het omrede sy
lief was vir mev Marx en die kinders en sy skuldig gevoel het om nie aan 'n
versoek van mev Marx te voldoen nie. Al hoewel sy telkens na 'n video episode
in haar kamer gelê en huil het, het sy telkens weer s aam met die appellant en sy
vrou in hulle slaapkamer gaan video kyk ook omdat sy by sy vrou wou wees. Sy
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het dan die appellant se va ttery sonder teëstribbeling verduur omrede soos sy dit
gestel het:
‘Ek wou nie hê sy moet weet dat hy dit doen nie, want ek wou hulle nie opbreek nie.
Ek wil nie die kinders seermaak om te weet, my ma en pa sal miskien uitmekaar uit gaan,
omdat hy vroetel aan 'n jonger meisie nie. En omdat sy vrou, sy sou nie so iets kon verwag
nie. Dit sou vir haar breek. Sy het hel onder Joha n Marx, en om dit . . . dit sal haar breek. En
ek sal nie . . . ek wou haar nie so seermaak nie.’
Alhoewel sy by geleentheid opgestaan het of 'n versoek om saa m na 'n video te
kyk van die hand gewys het, het sy nie daarmee volhard nie omrede mev Marx
dan vrae begin vra het en sy wou ve rhinder dat sy uitvind en sodoende
seergemaak word.
[13] Die klaagster het dus eerder die ri siko geloop dat mev Marx agterkom wat
langs haar in die bed aangaan tussen 'n me isie in haar slaapklere en haar man as
om haar agterdogtig te maak deur te weier om in die bed langs haar man te lê.
[14] Voor die Desember 1997 vakansie het die klaagster, steeds volgens haar
getuienis, weer na die a ppellant se huis gegaan om geskenke wat sy vir mev
Marx en die kinders gekoop het te oorhandig. Die appellant was besig om te
stort en het gesê sy moes 'n rukkie wag, mev Marx sou binnekort tuis wees.
Terwyl sy in die studeerkamer gesit en wag het, het die a ppellant ingekom. Sy
het die daaropvolgende gebeure soos volg besryf:
‘Toe ek sien, toe kom hy net in 'n onderbroek daar in en hy wil hê ek moet aan sy
geslagsdeel vat. En hy druk my teen die muur vas en skuur op en af teen my. Daar was so'n
glasdeur gewees. En hy het my so teen die hoek gedruk. En toe sê hy nog vir my, ja, kan hy
nie net puntjie natmaak nie. Dit was sy presiese woorde. Toe sê ek vir hom, “Nee, waarvan
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praat jy?”. Toe sê hy, “Ag, man, net puntjie natmaak, net vinnig gou puntjie natmaak”. Toe sê
ek vir hom, nee. En toe het hy my so in my nek gesoen en sy geslagsorgaan teen my geskuur.
En toe kom sy vrou en toe hardloop hy vinnig af kamer toe. En ek het daar gestaan en toe
gaan ek weer in studeerkamer toe en toe sit ek daar binne. En toe kom hy in en soos altyd
maak hy asof hy niks verkeerd gedoen het nie.’
[15] Na die Desember vakansie het die Marx-gesin na 'n ander huis getrek. Die
klaagster het dikwels na hulle huis gegaan om hulle te help met die trekkery.
[16] Die appellant en die klaagster he t op 31 Maart 1998 di e eerste keer met
mekaar gemeenskap gehad. Voor dit, gedurende die periode Januarie tot Maart
1998, het dit egter dikwels gebeur dat die appellant agter die klaagster kom staan
het en bewegings teen haar gemaak het. Hy het dan ook op sulke geleenthede in
haar oor gefluister: ‘Ek is nou lus vir 'n lekker steek.’ Beha lwe soos voormeld
kon sy nie spesifieke gevalle noem nie. Sy het wel genoem dat die appellant ook
aan haar borste en haar privaatdeel ge vat het. Soos reeds vermeld is dit
gedurende hierdie tyd wat dit ook ‘oor en oor’ gebeur het dat die klaagster saam
met die appellant en sy vrou na 'n vi deo gekyk het in hulle slaapkamer en die
klaagster deur die appellant betas is.
[17] Op 31 Maart 1998 was die klaagster en die appellant weer alleen by die
huis. Die klaagster was besig om werkies vir mev Marx in die motorhuis te doen
toe die appellant ingekom he t en vir haar gesê het: ‘Ek wil jou steek.’ Volgens
haar het hy aangehou en aangehou en het sy geantwoord: ‘Nee, ek wil nie. Ek
het dit nog nooit gedoen nie.’ Later het hy haar geroep: “Kom kyk gou hier.” Sy
beskryf die gebeure wat daarop gevolg het soos volg:
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‘Toe dog ek, ek moet vir hom iets doen. Toe stap . . . toe sê ek vir hom ek is besig.
Toe sê hy, “Kom kyk net gou hier”. En toe ek loop, toe ek in die kamer kom, toe is sy broek
afgetrek. Hy is besig om sy orgaan styf te maak, wat jy dit ookal noem. En hy het 'n kondoom
opgesit. En ek het . . . wou omdraai en hy gryp my arm, hy sê vir my, “Nee, wag net gou”.
Toe het hy vir my neergelê op die grond. En ek het vir hom gesê, “Nee, ek wil nie”. En hy het
vir my gesê, dit sal nie seer wees nie, dit sal vinnig oor wees. En hy het dit gedoen. En hoe
meer hy dit doen, toe sê ek vir hom, “Moenie, dit is seer, ek wil nie”. En hy het dit gedoen.’
[18] Uit die klaagster se verdere getu ienis blyk dit dat die kamer waarna sy
verwys die aantrekkamer is, wat gren s aan die slaapkamer. Tussen die
slaapkamer en die aantrekka mer is daar deure soortg elyk aan kasdeure. Tussen
die aantrekkamer en die badkamer is daar nie deure nie. Die klaagster het die
deure oopgestoot en die aantrekkamer binnegegaan. Sy het gemeen die appellant
wil dalk hê dat sy hom help soek na iets. Die appellant wa s op daardie stadium
in die badkamer. Sy het onmiddellik b esef dat hy besig was om 'n kondoom aan
te sit en dat hy met haar gemeenskap wou hê. Sy was geskok maar nie so geskok
dat sy nie kon omdraai en weghardloop nie. Sy wou omdraai en wegstap maar
toe sê die appellant vir haar woorde met die strekking dat sy nie moes bang wees
nie en dat sy moes wag. Hy het haar ook aan die arm gevat maar sy meen nie dat
hy dit gedoen het om haar te verhinde r om weg te hardloop nie. Sy was
onkundig en hy wou haar leer ‘al die ding e van seks’. Later het sy getuig dat hy
haar wel aan die hand gevat het om te verhinder dat sy uit die kamer kon
wegkom. Sy het ook tot h aar vroeëre beskrywing van die gebeure bygevoeg dat
sy probeer keer het dat die appellant haar broek losmaak. Terwyl hulle nog
gestaan het, het sy probeer verhinder dat die appellant haar broek se knoop
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losmaak. Die appellant was egter baie st erk en het die knoop losgekry. Sy het
haar broek vasgegryp om te verhinder da t hy dit aftrek. Die appellant het haar
toe op die grond neergesit want op die grond het hy haar in sy beheer gehad. Sy
het eers gesê dat sy nie fisies probeer het om weg te kom nie maar net daarna het
sy getuig dat sy wel probeer het maar da t sy nie kon nie. Die appellant het haar
neergedruk sodat sy nie kon opstaan nie. Dit was vir haar onmoontlik om uit sy
kloue te kom. Hy het haar bene oopgetrek en alhoewel sy pr obeer het om haar
onderklere op te hou het die appellant di t afgeforseer. Gedurende die proses het
sy herhaaldelik gesê dat sy nie met die a ppellant wou gemeenskap hê nie, dat sy
bang is en dat sy dit nog nooit gedoen het nie.
[19] Na die gebeure het die klaagster vol gens haar getuienis op die kamerbed
gaan sit. Die appellant het langs haar kom sit en aan haar die kondoom gewys
wat hy toe ook toegeknoop het. Later het sy gesien da t sy bloei. Sy het die
appellant daarvan vertel en gesê dat sy bang was iets het verkeerd gegaan.
[20] Aldus die klaagster het sy na die voorval die Marxse vir 'n tydlank vermy.
Sy het egter later teruggek eer en van toe af tot 9 Oktober 1999 het sy en die
appellant ongeveer 13 keer gemeenskap gehad. Ongeve er 'n verdere ses keer
daarna het sy ‘nee’ gesê. Sy kon nie besonderhede gee van wanneer en hoe dit
gebeur het nie behalwe om te sê dat dit op die slaapkamerbed of die rusbank
plaasgevind het. Daarna het sy nie meer omgegee nie en nie meer teëgestribbel
nie. Die laaste keer wat hulle gemeen skap gehad het was op 9 Oktober 1999 toe
sy juweliersware wat sy van mev Marx geleen het vir haar matriekafskeid
teruggeneem het en mev Marx haar alleen agtergelaat het met die appellant om
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na Paarl te gaan. Sy het so na die appellant se huis teruggekeer ten spyte daarvan
dat haar pa haar op 'n stadium verbied he t om te gaan en sy en haar pa, wat
gereken het die appellant ‘het attensies’ baie gestry het in hierdie verband.
[21] Volgens die appellant het die klaag ster in Augustus 1997 die eerste keer
by sy huis kom kinders oppas. Daarna het sy dit gereeld gedoen. In die meeste
gevalle het sy oorgeslaap. Sy het ook op 'n gereelde basis oor naweke by sy huis
oorgeslaap. Op sulke geleenthede het hy, sy vrou en die klaagster, vanaf laat
1997, gereeld saam televisie gekyk. Die klaagster het dan op die regteronderpunt
van die bed gesit of soms bo aan die linke rkant langs hom. Hy is die een wat vir
haar gesê het om daar te kom lê. Dit het gebeur dat hy, sy vrou en die klaagster
onder dieselfde duvet of kombers gelê het. Voor ongeveer Julie 1999 het hy glad
nie die klaagster betas nie.
[22] Gedurende ongeveer Julie 1999 het hy en die klaagster televisie in die
slaapkamer gekyk. Hy het gelê en die klaagster het op die punt van die bed gesit.
Sy vrou was in die stort. Hy het die klaagster in di e ribbes gepomp en gesê sy
moet hom 'n drukkie gee. Sy het dit gedoen. Sy vrou het uit die stort gekom en
met haar kop op sy bors gaan lê. Beide het onder 'n duvet gelê. Die appellant het
vir die klaagster gesê dat sy langs hom kon kom lê. Hy het dit gedoen omdat die
klaagster rondbeweeg het en 'n stoornis ve roorsaak het. Dit het gelyk of sy koud
kry. Die klaagster het langs hom kom lê en haar toegemaak met die duvet. Haar
been het aan sy been geraak. Sy vrou he t gesê sy gaan slaap en het haar rug na
hulle kant gedraai. Die a ppellant het die klaagster se binneboud gevryf. Sy het
haar been oor syne getel en hy het bo-oor haar klere aan haar geslagsdeel gevat.
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Daarna het hy vir haar beduie om haar br oek af te trek en nadat sy die rek van
haar pajama broek gelig het, het hy dit ook onder die klere gedoen. Die klaagster
het sy hand vasgedruk. Sy het haar he upe begin beweeg, hy het benoud geraak
dat sy vrou wakker kon word , het sy hand uitgehaal en gesê hy gaan slaap. Na
dit, terwyl die klaag ster op die kant van die bed ge sit het, het hy nog haar hand
op sy geslagsdeel gesit en het sy dit 'n dr uk gegee voordat sy d aar uit is en gaan
slaap het.
[23] Alhoewel die klaagster die appell ant se huis nog net so gereeld soos
vantevore besoek het en daar weer gevalle kon gewe es het wat die appellant
saam met die klaagster tele visie gekyk het, het daar tu ssen hierdie gebeurtenis
en 9 Oktober 1999 niks van 'n onbetaamlike aard tuss en hom en die klaagster
gebeur nie. Hy het nie eers daaraan gedi nk om weer die klaagster te betas nie.
Dit het geensins 'n verandering in die verhouding met die klaagster
teweeggebring nie. Op 9 Oktober 1999, die verjaarsdag van beide hom en die
klaagster, was hy besig om homself af te droog nadat hy gestort het toe die
klaagster die aantrekkamer binngekom het. Hy het haar gevra om hom 'n kansie
te gee om homself aan te trek. Sy het vir hom in die slaapkamer gewag. Hy wou
haar 'n gewone soen gee om haar met haar verjaarsdag geluk te wens. Sy het
hom egter 'n passievolle soen gege e wat op gemeenskap met haar volle
medewerking uitgeloop het. Hy was ba ie senuweeagtig dat sy vrou sou
terugkeer van waar sy ookal was en het vir die klaagster gesê dat hulle gou hulle
klere moet aantrek. Hulle he t dit gedoen en in die sitkam er gaan sit. Op daardie
stadium het hy nog steeds die kondoom wat hy gebruik het aa ngehad. Nadat sy
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vrou teruggekom het, is hy terug ba dkamer toe. Hy het die kondoom afgehaal,
dit in 'n papiersak toegedr aai en in sy broeksak gest eek. Later het hy gery en dit
in die veld gaan weggooi.
[24] Die klaagster het 'n geskiedeni s van sielkundige probleme. Sy het
moeilike kinderjare gehad. Haar natuurlike ma en pa het nie getrou nie. Toe sy
agt jaar oud was en haar ma en haar stiefpa (na wie ek , soos sy, verwys as haar
pa) die tweede keer geskei het, kon sy di t nie hanteer nie en het sy sielkundige
behandeling ontvang. Sy kon nie die name van al die siekundiges by wie sy was,
onthou nie. Gedurende die tydperk 1997 tot 1998 het haar pa finansiële
probleme gehad en ‘alles’ insluitende sy huis en voertuie verloor as gevolg
waarvan sy depressief was en nie skooltoe gegaan het nie want sy ‘kon nie sien .
. . dat (haar) pa al sy goed verloor nie’. Gedurend e die periode 1998 tot 1999
was daar weer sprake dat haar ouers g aan skei. Sy het dit as baie ontwrigtend
ervaar. Dan het sy volgens haar ook nog die genoemde probleme met die
appellant gehad. Sy het se lfs probeer om haar eie lewe te neem deur pille te
drink. Die appellant was volgens haar di e groot rede daarvoor. In November
1999 is 'n ernstige depressiewe episode en angsaanvalle gediagnoseer. Die
diagnose van 'n sielkundige was dat die siektetoestand veroorsaak is deur
eksamenspanning en onverwerkte kinderja re ervaringe. Sy is op medikasie
geplaas wat verligting van die simptome gegee het.
[25] Na die matriekeksamen, in Novemb er 1999, het die klaagster vir haar
tante in Pletttenbergbaai gaan kui er. Alhoewel sy sedert 1997 'n
voorbehoedmiddel as medikasie vir 'n velk waal gebruik het, het sy vermoed dat
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sy swanger was omrede die appellant, volgens haar, op die laaste geleentheid
wat hulle gemeenskap gehad het nie 'n kondoom gebruik het nie. Sy sê dat sy
besig was om van haar kop af te gaan vanweë spanning teweeggebring deur haar
vrees dat sy swanger was. In hierdie toestand het sy haar tante in haar vertroue
geneem en haar vertel dat sy 'n verhouding met 'n getroude man het. 'n
Swangerskap toets het getoon dat sy nie swanger was ni e. Volgens die klaagster
het sy die gebeure tussen haar en die appellant soos volg aan haar tante beskryf:
‘Toe vra sy vir my hoe het dit gebeur. Toe vertel ek hy het eers begin vatterig raak en
later het hy my gedwing om met hom seksuele omgang te hê sonder dat ek vir hom ja gesê
het.
Later het hy vir u gedwing, is dit wat u gesê het? - - - Hy het . . .
Het u gesê later het hy vir u gedwing om met ho m seksuele omgang te hê? - - - Wel, as hy
homself op my opgedring, dan dink ek dit is dwing.
Nee, nee, ek vra nie u afleidings nie,ek vra, het u vir die vrou gesê, “Later het hy my
gedwing”, het u die woord gebruik? - - - Nee, ek dink nie ek het die woord “dwing” gebruik
nie.
Goed, mevrou. U het nou vir u tannie gesê hy het aan u gevat en later het hy met u
gemeenskap gehad. Verstaan ek dit nou reg, is dit nou om dit in 'n neutedop op te som? - - -
Ja.
En u het vir u tannie laat verstaan die gemeenskap was sonder u toestemming, as ek dit so kan
stel? - - -Ja
En het u vir u tannie vertel wanneer die dinge sou gebeur het? - - - Ja, ek het haar alles vertel.
. . .
So, u het vir u tannie vertel vandat u in standerd 8 was, sê u, het hy u gemolesteer, om die
woord te gebruik en later met u gemeenskap gehad? - - - Ja.’
15
[26] Nadat die klaagster haar tante vertel het wat gebeur het, het haar tante,
volgens haar, gesê dat sy seksueel gemole steer is en dat aangesien sy die eerste
keer wat sy met die appellant gemeenskap gehad het nee gesê het, sy deur hom
verkrag is.
[27] Die klaagster se getuienis strook ni e met dié van haar ta nte nie. Ten spyte
daarvan dat haar tante verske ie kere gevra is wat die klaagster haar vertel het,
het sy nooit getuig dat die klaagster haar vertel het dat sy die eerste keer nie
toestemming gegee het nie. Sy het ook nie getuig dat sy die klaagster geadviseer
het dat sy verkrag is nie, maar het getu ig: ‘Ek het vir Marlese vertel wat gebeur
het is verkeerd, want sy was minderjari g en dit was 'n volwasse persoon. En ek
het gevoel dat sy moes haar ouers on middellik daarvan sê wat vir Marlese
verskriklik was.’
[28] Gedurende Desember 19 99 terwyl die klaagster in Knysna by haar tante
gekuier het, het sy volgens haar getuie nis vir mev Marx geskakel om haar mee
te deel dat sy haar eksamen geslaag het. Die appelant en sy gesin was op daardie
stadium ook in Knysna en op uitnodiging van mev Marx het sy hulle gaan groet
by 'n eetplek in die dorp.
[29] Op 2 Februarie 2000 het die klaagst er weer ernstige paniekaanvalle begin
beleef. Die sielkundige wat sy reeds in November 1999 gespreek het, was steeds
van mening dat haar simp tome deur studiedruk en onverwerkte kinderjare
ervaringe veroorsaak is. Hy het haar na 'n psigiater verwys wat haar behandel
het gedurende die tydperk 20 Maart 2000 tot 29 Mei 200 0. Sy het nie vir die
sielkundige of die psigiater in haar ve rtroue geneem oor die ‘molestasie of
16
verkragting’ nie. In antwoord op die vr aag hoekom sy hulle nie daarvan vertel
het nie het die klaagster geantwoord:
‘Vir my was dit 'n verhouding. Ek het nie geweet wat verkragting of molestering is,
wat dit behels, hoe ver jy mag en nie mag gaan voordat dit molestering is nie.’
[30] Kort na hierdie getuienis het sy me t betrekking tot haar kennis voordat sy
met haar tante gepraat het, getuig:
‘Ek het geweet dit is verkragting en molestering, maar omdat ek later nie meer kon
nee sê nie, het ek gedink ek het . . . ek het skuld daaraan. Dit is ek. Ek het geweet dit is
verkragting en molestering, maar omdat dit later só was dat ek nie meer vir Johan Marx ja of
nee of los my uit kan sê nie, want hy het net geboef-baf, as hy wou dan wou hy. En dit het my
skuldig laat voel en laat voel, bly eerder stil Marlese, los dit eerder.’
Op 'n latere stadium en op die vraag of sy nie besef het dat seks sonder
toestemming verkragting is nie het sy g eantwoord dat sy nie so daaraan gedink
het nie. Nog later het sy getuig:
'[I]n u eie gemoed, was daar enige twyfel by u dat wat met u gebeur, verkragting is? - - - Ek
het nie aan verkragting gedink nie, nee.
U het nie aan verkragting gedink nie? - - - Nee, omdat . . . omdat hy dit hoeveel keer met my
gedoen het en vir my gesê het dit is reg. Ek sê ja, en niemand gaan my glo nie, ek is 'n kind,
hy is 'n man en hy het mag. . .
Die vraag is, mevrou, in u gemoed . . .(tussenbeide) - - - Nee.
Daardie tyd het u nooit gedink wat nou hier met my gebeur, is verkragting nie? - - - Nee maar
ek het net geweet dit is verkeerd. Dit is nie reg nie.
Het u nie by die skool gehoor van verkragting nie? - - - Ja.
U het by die skool seker gehoor van Child Line wat u kan bel? - - - Ja.
Ja. En Rape Crisis, u het seker daarvan gehoor? - - - Ja.
17
En u word hier klaarblyklik op u weergawe by herhaling verkrag. Is dit nie so nie? - - - Ja.
U dink nie daaraan dat dit verkragting is nie? Is dit wat u sê U moet tog maar antwoord,
asseblief. - - - Nee.
U dink nie daaraan dat dit verkragting is nie? - - - Wel, die eerste keer het ek daaraan gedink,
ja, maar ander kere, nee.’
My interpretasie van hierdie getuienis is dat sy nooit aan die gebeure gedink het
as verkragting nie en dat bloot omrede sy so in 'n hoek ge dryf is deur die
waarskynlikheid dat indien die eerste gemeenskap plaasgevind het op die wyse
deur haar beweer sy wel daaraan as ve rkragting sou gedink het, sy op die ou
einde gesê het dat sy wel aan die eers te gemeenskap met die appellant as
verkragting gedink het.
[31] In Februarie 2000 het die klaagster 'n man, Mornè Stander, aan wie sy in
Julie 2000 verloof geraak he t en met wie sy later getr ou het, ontmoet. 'n Paar
maande na hulle ontmoeting het sy, aldus haar getuienis, vir hom vertel van wat
tussen haar en die appellant gebeur het. Een aand is sy en Mornè na die
appellant se huis en het sy vir die appellant gesê ‘Mornè weet en Mornè gaan
sorg dat ek die waarheid uitbring’.
[32] Gedurende 13 September en 30 Oktober 2000 het die klaagster
behandeling van 'n psigiater en 'n kliniese sielkundige ontvang. Sy het getuig dat
sy beide van hulle volledig ingelig he t oor die gebeure tussen haar en die
appellant. Nadat sy die psigiater, dr Van Rooy so ingelig het, het hy aldus die
klaagster, vir haar gesê dat sy nie 'n ve rhouding met die appellant gehad het nie,
dat sy deur hom gemolesteer is en dat as sy nee gesê het vi r seksuele omgang
18
met hom, sy deur hom verkrag is. Sy het getuig dat sy soos volg hierop
gereageer het:
‘Toe sê ek vir hom, maar dit kan nie wees nie, Johan Marx het gesê dit is 'n
verhouding. Toe sê hy, nee, dit is nie 'n verhoudi ng nie, ek was minderjarig en ek het hom nie
toestemming gegee om dit aan my te doen nie. . . . Daarna het ek dit vir Morné wat op daardie
stadium my verloofde was, gesê wat die dokter ge sê het. En hy het my oorreed om my ouers
te bel.’
[33] Dr van Rooy se getuieni s is nie tot die effek dat die klaagster hom vertel
het dat die appellant haar sonder to estemming betas he t en sonder haar
toestemming met haar gemeensk ap gehad het nie. Uit sy getuienis blyk dit dat
hy van die klaagster verstaan het dat beta sting en penetrasie voor die ouderdom
van 16 jaar plaasgevind het en dat hy die klaagster ingelig het dat die appellant
hom skuldig gemaak het aa n statutêre verkragting. 1 Hy het verder getuig dat hy
panieksteuring van 'n redelike ernstige graad gediagnoseer het. Volgens hom is
daar 'n direkte verband tussen ontw ikkeling van post traumatiese stres tipe
simptome en die ontwikkeling van angstoest ande en depressie toestande laat in
die lewe van kinders wat se ksueel gemolesteer is. Die simptome kan egter ook
verskeie ander oorsake hê en as die klaagster 'n vrywi llige party tot die seksuele
toenadering was, kon sy nog steeds tot dieselfde mate dieselfde simptome
ontwikkel het.
[34] Die klaagster se a ngsaanvalle het erg geraak en sy het volgens haar
getuienis besef dat sy 'n klag teen di e appellant moes lê ten einde 'n einde
1 Sien para [69] waar die statutêre bepaling aangehaal word.
19
daaraan te maak. Op 23 Oktober 2000 het sy dit gedoen en ook 'n verklaring aan
die polisie gemaak.
[35] In haar getuienis het die klaagster verduidelik dat sy nie haar ouers vroeër
van die gebeure ingelig het nie omrede sy hulle nie wou seerma ak nie. Haar pa
het baie vertroue in haar gehad en sy was bang dat hy sy vertroue in haar sou
verloor. Sy het ook getuig dat sy bang was dat haar pa haar nie sou glo nie.
Laasgenoemde getuienis is oënskynlik in stryd met haar getuienis dat haar pa
haar verbied het om na di e appellant se huis te gaan, dat hy gesê het dat hy weet
die appellant het ‘attensies’ en dat sy baie met haar pa argu mente daaroor gehad
het. 'n Moontlike verduideliking is egte r dat die rede waarom sy nie haar ouers
voorheen vertel het nie van tyd tot tyd verander het.
[36] Volgens die klaagster was sy baie li ef vir mev Marx en haar kinders en
wou sy haar nie as 'n vriendin verloor nie. Sy wou ook nie moeilikheid in die
huwelik veroorsaak nie. Vir dié rede en ook omdat sy bang was dat mev Marx
haar nie sou glo en haar man se part so u kies, het sy haar nie vertel wat die
appellant aan haar gedoen het nie en he t sy steeds uitnodigings na die Marx-
gesin se huis aanvaar.
[37] Die verhoorlanddros het bevind dat die betastingsvoorval en die
gemeenskap op 31 Maart 1998 sonder di e toestemming van die klaagster
plaasgevind het. Hy het die appellant gevolglik skuldig bevind op albei
aanklagte. Alhoewel die appellant na sy mening sy getuienis op 'n bevredigende
wyse afgelê het, en sy getuienis na sy mening oortuigend was, het die
verhoorlanddros bevind dat sy weergawe onwaarskynlik is. Daarteenoor het die
20
verhoorlanddros bevind dat die klaagst er met die uitsondering van sekere
negatiewe aspekte 'n briljant e getuie was en dat haar getuienis te gedetailleerd
was om gefabriseerd te wees. Sy be nadering was om die weergawes van die
appellant en die klaagster teen mekaar op te weeg naamlik, aan die een kant die
klaagster se weergawe dat die appellan t haar sedert 1997 he rhaaldelik betas het
en dat hy sedert Maart 1998 herhaaldelik met haar gemeenskap gehad het,
teenoor die appellant se w eergawe dat hy die klaagst er met haar toestemming
slegs op een geleentheid betas het naamlik in Julie 1999 en dat hy slegs een keer
met haar gemeenskap gehad het naamlik op 9 Oktober 1999. In die lig van die
waarskynlikhede en sy oordeel oor die geloofwaardigheid van die klaagster het
die verhoorlanddros tot die gevolgtrekking gekom dat die appellant se weergawe
nie redelik moontlik waar kan wees nie.
[38] Op appèl na die hof a quo is die verhoorla nddros se beslissing
gehandhaaf. Die hof a quo het verwys na die uitspraak in R v Dhlumayo 1948
(2) SA 677 (A) waar op 706 gesê is dat as die verhoorregter geen feitelike
mistasting begaan het nie is daar 'n verm oede dat sy gevolgtrekking korrek is en
dat 'n hof van appèl slegs daarmee sal inmeng as hy oortuig is die bevinding is
verkeerd. Verder dat 'n hof van appèl nie angstig sa l poog om redes te vind om
met die verhoorregter se bevindings in te meng nie aangesien geen uitspraak
allesomvattend kan wees en dit nie volg uit die feit dat iets nie genoem word dat
dit nie in ag geneem is ni e. Na oorweging het die hof a quo tot die
gevolgtrekking gekom dat die skuldigb evinding van die appellant op die
21
getuienis geregverdig is, en dat daar geen rede bestaan waarom daar van die
verhoorlanddros se bevindings afgewyk of daarmee ingemeng moet word nie.
[39] Ten aansien van die vraag of 'n fe itelike mistasting be gaan is het Davis
Wnd AR in Dhlumayo op 706 gesê:
‘10 There may be a misdirection on fact by the trial Judge where the reasons are either on
their face unsatisfactory or where the record shows them to be such; there may be such
a misdirection also where, though the reasons as far as they go are satisfactory, he is
shown to have overlooked other facts or probabilities.
11 The appellate court is then at large to disregard his findings on fact, even though based
on credibility, in whole or in part according to the nature of the misdirection and the
circumstances of the particular case, and so come to its own conclusion on the matter.’
Die voorskrifte vervat in Dhlumayo is nie regsreëls nie maar slegs logiese
riglyne (sien Dhlumayo op 695).
[40] Dit is natuurlik so da t 'n hof van appèl slegs met die feitebevindings van 'n
verhoorhof sal inmeng as dit van mening is dat die ve rhoorhof fouteer het. Dit
moet egter steeds in gedagte gehou word dat 'n veroordeelde persoon 'n reg van
appèl het ook ten opsigte van feitebevindings. Dit is dus die plig van 'n hof van
appèl om deeglik die feite bevindings van die verhoorho f te oorweeg en homself
te vergewis dat daardie feitebevindings kor rek is. Indien 'n hof van appèl, met
behoorlike inagneming van die bevindi ngs van die verhoorhof, die redes
daarvoor en die voordele wat die verhoorhof het soos om die ge tuies te sien en
te hoor in die atmosfeer wat heers tydens die ver hoor, van mening is dat die
verhoorhof se feitebevindings verkeerd is en dat die beskuldigde verkeerdelik
skuldig bevind is, moet die hof van appèl inmeng. In die proses moet die
22
voordele wat die verhoorhof het nie oorskat word nie ‘l est the appellant’s right
of appeal becomes illusory’ (sien Protea Assurance Co Ltd v Casey 1970 (2) SA
643 (A) te 648E).
[41] Op die appellant se weergawe he t 'n meisie tot wie hy klaarblyklik
seksueel aangetrokke gevoel het talle kere langs hom op sy bed, in haar
slaapklere, onder 'n kombers of duvet gelê of gesit en televisie kyk en het hy
nooit seksuele toenadering tot haar gesoek tot een goeie dag toe hy haar en sy
hom op die mees intieme wy se betas het terwyl sy vr ou langs hom op die bed lê
en slaap het. Alhoewel hy nie gedink het dat hy moreel verkeerd opgetree het
nie en alhoewel hy steeds gereelde kontak met die klaagster gehad het en
‘moontlik’ weer saam met haar op die bed televisie gekyk het, het hy nie weer
aan die voorval gedink nie en het, nie hy of sy, vir etlike maande seksuele
toenadering tot mekaar gesoek nie tot een goeie dag toe sy in sy
aantrekkamer/badkamer instap terwyl hy besig was om homself af te droog en
sy hom 'n passievolle soen gee wat u itloop op gemeenskap in sy aantrekkamer
terwyl sy vrou enige oom blik kon terugkeer na die huis. Daarna beskuldig sy
hom van seksuele teisteri ng en herhaalde verkragtings oor 'n tydperk van
ongeveer twee jaar.
[42] Na my mening het die verhoorlanddros tereg bevind dat die appellant se
getuienis, dat daar slegs die enkele ge valle van betasting en gemeenskap was,
onwaarskynlik is.
[43] Vir die redes hierna genoem is ek egter van mening dat die klaagster se
getuienis, meer spesifiek haar getuienis dat sy nie toegestem het tot die betasting
23
en gemeenskap, eweneens on waarskynlik is. Ek is verder van mening dat die
verhoorlanddros en waarskynlik ook die hof a quo tot so’n mate gekonsentreer
het op die vraag of daar meerdere gevall e van betasting was s oos deur klaagster
getuig, dat nie voldoende oorweging geskenk is aan die waarskynlikheid van die
klaagster se weergawe spesifiek met betr ekking tot toestemming nie. Hulle het
gevolglik van die waarskynlikhede waarna ek hierna sal verwys, óf misgekyk óf
verkeerd beoordeel. Die ve rhoorlanddros het ook soos ek hieronder sal aandui
na my mening verkeerde feitebevindings gemaak ten aansien van hierdie vraag.
[44] Die vraag is nie soseer of daar meerdere gevalle van betasting en
gemeenskap was nie. Die vraag is of bo redelike twyfel bewys is dat die
betasting en die gemeenskap waaraan die appellant skuldig bevind is sonder die
toestemming van die klaagster geskied het. Indien daar 'n redelike moontlikheid
bestaan dat dit met die toestemming va n die klaagster geskied het is die
appellant verkeerdelik skuldig bevind aan onsedelike aanranding en verkragting.
Wat die appellant, 'n bykans 40-jarige ervare getroude man met kinders van sy
eie gedoen het met die klaagster, 'n jo ng skoolgaande meisie wat op sy eie
getuienis hom gerespekteer het, wie se vertroueling hy was en wat soos 'n kind
in die huis was, is 'n skande en mor eel afkeurenswaardig. Dit is so of die
klaagster nou toegestem het daartoe of ni e. Die appellant het self erken dat hy
later besef het dat wat hy gedoen het moreel verkeerd was. Aangesien die
24
klaagster egter ouer as 12 jaar was, he t hy nie die gemenere gtelike misdaad van
onsedelike aanranding of verkragting gepleeg indien sy toegestem het nie.2
[45] Die advokaat vir die staat het tereg betoog dat oorgawe sonder
teëstribbeling nie noodwendi g dui op toestemming nie. Sien in hierdie verband
R v Swiggelaar 1950 (1) PH H61 (A):
‘Submission by itself is no grant of consent, and if a man so intimidates a woman as to
induce her to abandon resistance and submit to intercourse to which she is unwilling, he
commits the crime of rape. All the circumstances must be taken into account to determine
whether passivity is proof of implied consent or whether it is merely the abandonment of
outward resistance which the woman, while persisting in her objection to intercourse, is afraid
to display or realises is useless.’
In hierdie saak ontstaan die probleem om te onderske i tussen oorgawe sonder
teëstribbeling en toestemming egter ni e want volgens die klaagster het sy
teëgestribbel en het sy haarself fisies ve rset teen die appellant. Die vraag is dus
bloot of haar getuienis dat sy daadwerklik geweier het dat sy betas word en dat
gemeenskap met haar gehou word bo redelike twyfel aanvaar kan word. Die
volgende oorwegings dui op die teendeel.
[46] In die eerste plek is dit iet wat onwaarskynlik dat die appellant die
klaagster teen haar wil so u betas op die wyse deur h aar beskryf terwyl sy vrou
langsaan gebad het met die deur na die badkamer half pad oop. Dit is nog meer
onwaarskynlik dat die appellant, soos getuig deur die klaagster, daarna op ander
geleenthede, teen haar wil, haar knope sou losmaak en haar borste sou betas
terwyl sy vrou wakker langs hom op die bed lê. Dit is veral onwaarskynlik in die
2 R v Z 1960 (1) SA 739 (A) op 742E.
25
lig van die feit dat nie net op die appellant se getuienis maar ook op die klaagster
se getuienis die appellant op ander geleenthede vers igtig was dat sy vrou nie
uitvind wat aan die gang was nie. Dit is ook moeilik om die klaagster se
getuienis dat sy die appellant se hand vasg edruk het ‘sodat hy dit kan uittrek’ te
verstaan en dit is eienaardig dat haar getuienis dat sy met albei hande gepoog het
om sy hand weg te trek eers op 'n veel later stadium in haar getuienis gegee is.
Die klaagster het aanvanklik getuig dat sy probeer het om op te staan maar dat
sy nie kon nie. Later het sy egter getuig dat sy nie probeer het om op te staan
nie. Sy kon geen verduideliking gee hoekom sy nie geloop het nie. Sy het eers te
kenne gegee dat sy haar bene toegeknyp het en daarna toegegee dat sy dit nie
gedoen het nie. Die klaagster se optrede na die voorval spreek ook teen haar
getuienis dat sy onsedelik aangerand is. Kort na die voorval het die klaagster die
appellant naamlik gaan gelukwens met sy verjaarsdag en bl yk dit nie dat sy
beswaar gemaak het toe hy haar meer as 'n gewone soen gegee het en haar
borste betas het nie. Sy he t getuig dat sy herhaaldel ik teruggegaan het na die
Marxse se woning omrede sy nie vir mev Marx as 'n vriendin wou verloor nie,
sy het gevoel dat sy dit aan haar verskul dig was want mev Marx het so baie vir
haar gedoen en die minste wat sy kon doen was om mev Marx te help. Ek vind
dit moeilik om te aanvaar dat daar al so’n hegte ve rhouding kon bestaan op die
stadium toe die betastingsvoorval in di e bed plaasgevind het. Dit het naamlik
gebeur hoogstens drie maande nadat die klaagster die eerste keer die appellant se
kinders opgepas het (indien die ontmoetings datum soos verstrek in die klaagster
se verklaaring aan die polisie aanvaar word , slegs 'n maand d aarna). In die lig
26
daarvan dat sy telkens langs die appellant in die bed g aan lê het en telkens die
risiko geloop het dat mev Marx kon agterkom wat langs haar in die bed aangaan,
vind ek dit moeilik om te aanvaar dat di e klaagster nie uitnodigings om op die
bed te lê van die hand wou wys nie uit vrees dat mev Marx sou agterdogtig raak.
Dit is nog moeiliker om te aanvaar in die lig van haar getuienis dat sy wel bereid
was om op te staan en na haar kamer te gaan toe die appellant by geleentheid
vatterig met sy vrou geraak het en sy van mening was dat hy dit gedoen het om
haar uit te tart. Toe dit gebeur het, het sy besluit dat sy genoeg gehad het en dat
sy nie sou toelaat dat die appellant verder met haar ‘mors’ nie.
[47] Die appellant het di e klaagster voor die beweer de verkragting verskeie
kere op die mees intieme wyse betas. Dit het teen die tyd wat die eerste
gemeenskap plaasgevind het al oor en oor gebeur op sy bed in sy slaapkamer
terwyl sy vrou langs hom lê. Hy het al in sy onderbroek na haar gekom waar sy
in die studeerkamer vir hom gewag het te rwyl sy vrou nie tuis was nie en haar
versoek om aan sy geslagsdeel te vat en hy het hom al teen haar gemasturbeer.
Hy het ook meerdere kere te kenne gegee dat hy met haar gemeenskap wou hê.
Op die dag toe die beweerde verkragtin g plaasgevind het, het hy verskeie kere
so te kenne gegee en het hy haar ‘gesoen en probeer vat aan (haar) en alles’.
Haar getuienis oor hoe dit gekom het dat sy haar daar na in die appellant se
aantrekkamer bevind het, is nie bevredige nd nie. Sy het getuig dat die appellant
haar geroep het en dat hy gesê het dat sy na iets moet kom kyk. Sy het afgelei
dat hy in die gang was en dat hy vir haar iets wou vra soos om 'n asbak, sigarette
of 'n glas water te bring. Toe sy hom nie in die gang aantref nie maar vind dat hy
27
in die aantrekkamer of die badkamer is, het sy gedink dat hy miskien wou hê dat
sy hom moes help soek vir iets en het sy sonder meer die deure van die
aantrekkamer oopgemaak en ingest ap. Na my mening is dit hoogs
onwaarskynlik dat sy nie toe sy na die sl aapkamer geroep is en voordat sy die
aantrekkamer binnegegaan het geweet he t wat die appellant wou doen nie. Tog
het sy die deure oopgemaak en ingegaan en selfs toe sy si en dat hy sy broek
afgetrek het en 'n kondoom aangesit het, het sy nie weggeloop nie. Die
verhoorlanddros het skynbaar sonder meer die klaagste r se getuienis aangaande
die rede waarom sy die appellant se aan trekkamer binnegegaan het, aanvaar. Na
my mening het hy fouteer. In die lig van die voorafgaande gebeure en die
appellant se voorafgaande mededelings aan die klaagster is dit onwaarskynlik
dat die klaagster nie geweet wat die appellant wou doen nie.
[48] Die klaagster het self erken dat toe sy die appellant in die badkamer sien
sy geweet het dat hy met h aar gemeenskap wou hê maar tog het sy nie dadelik
weggeloop nie. Die feit da t sy die aantrekkamer binne gegaan het wetende dat
die appellant met haar gemeenskap w ou hê, beteken natuurlik nie dat sy
ingestem het om wel met hom gemeenskap te hê nie. Dit werp egter ten minste
twyfel op haar geloofwaardigheid, meer spesifiek haar getuienis dat sy haar
verset het teen die appellant se pogings om haar te betas.
[49] Die eerste persoon vir wie die klaa gster vertel het va n haar verhouding
met die appellant was haar tante. Haar ge tuienis dat sy haar tante vertel het dat
sy aanvanklik nee gesê het en dat haar tante gesê het dat sy dan verkrag is,
28
strook nie met haar tante se getuieni s nie en kan vir die volgende redes nie
aanvaar word nie:
a) Haar tante het, alhoewel sy versoe k is om besonderhed e te verstrek van
wat die klaagster haar vertel het, geen melding daarvan gemaak nie.
b) Dit is onwaarskynlik dat haar tante sou vergeet he t dat die klaagster haar
vertel het dat die gemeenskap sonder haar toestemming geskied het of dat
sy dit nie sou vermeld indien sy wel so meegedeel is ni e. Sy was immers
'n getuie in 'n verkragtingsaak.
c) Op die klaagster se eie getuienis he t sy nog lank nadat sy met haar tante
gepraat het nie aan die gebeure as verkragting gedink nie. Sy het naamlik
self op twee geleenthede getuig da t sy totdat sy dr Van Rooy in
September 2000 gespreek het nooit so aan die gebeure gedink het nie. Dit
is so dat sy ook by twee geleenthede getuig het dat sy wel aan die gebeure
as verkragting gedink het maar, s oos reeds hierbo vermeld, is dit
waarskynlik die onbestaanbaarheid van haar getuienis van hoe sy verkrag
is met haar getuienis dat sy nie aan die gebeure as verk ragting gedink het
wat haar by tye genoop het om te kenne te gee da t sy wel aan die eerste
geval gedink het as verkragting.
[50] Dit is onwaarskynlik dat die klaag ster dr Van Rooy vertel het dat die
gemeenskap met die appellant sonder toestemming plaasgevind het. As sy dit
aan hom vertel het sou sy nie verbaas gewees het om van hom te hoor dat sy
verkrag is nie. Dit blyk nie uit sy getuienis dat sy hom dit vertel het nie. Volgens
29
sy getuienis het hy gemeen dat sy no g onder die ouderdom van 16 was toe die
gemeenskap plaasgevind het en het hy vir hierdie rede gemeen dat sy verkrag is.
[51] Die verhoorlandddros was van meni ng dat niks gemaak kon word van die
feit dat die klaagster se tante nie die kl aagster se getuienis dat sy haar tante
vertel het dat sy nie toestemming gegee het nie, bevestig het nie. Die redes
verstrek deur die verhoorl anddros is nie duidelik nie. Aan die een kant skyn hy
te aanvaar dat die klaagster nie haar ta nte vertel het dat sy aanvanklik nee gesê
het en sê hy dat dit klink asof die tant e dit as vanselfsprekend aanvaar het dat
toestemming ontbreek het. Aan die ander kant skyn hy te aanvaar dat sy wel
haar tante vertel het. Die probleem word veroorsaak deur die teenstrydigheid in
die getuienis van die klaagster en haar ta nte. Die klaagster se tante se getuienis
is nie vatbaar vir die interpretasie dat sy aanvaar het dat die gemeenskap sonder
toestemming geskied het nie. Dit is ook nie versoenbaar met die klaagster se
getuienis dat sy haar tante vo llediglik ingelig het, dat sy haar tante vertel het dat
sy aanvanklik nee gesê het en dat haar tant e gesê het dat sy ve rkrag is as sy nee
gesê het nie. Die geskilpunt in die saak is of die klaagster toestemming gegee
het tot die aanvanklik gemeenskap met h aar. As die klaagster haar tante vertel
het dat sy nie sodanige toestemming gege e het nie of feite verstrek het wat dui
op verkragting is dit, soos reeds gesê, onwaarskynlik dat haar tante dit sou
vergeet het en dat sy dit nie sou vermel d het toe sy gevra is presies wat die
klaagster haar vertel het nie.
[52] Indien die gemeenskap met die klaag ster teen haar wil geskied het en sy
bloot oorgegee het aan die appellant sonder om teë te stribbel of om haar fisies
30
te verset, sou haar getuieni s dat sy nie aan die gebeure, soos deur haar beskryf,
as verkragting gedink het nie totdat sy anders geadviseer is, meer verstaanbaar
gewees het. Dit is egter nie haar getuienis dat sy so oorgegee het nie. Haar
getuienis, alhoewel nie sonder teenstrydighede nie, is dat sy nie alleen ‘nee’ gesê
het nie maar dat sy ook fisies oorweldig is. Haar broek is losgemaak terwyl sy
gepoog het om dit te verhinder maar sy kon nie want die appellant ‘is baie
sterk’. Haar broek en onderklere is afgetrek terwyl sy probeer het om dit vas te
hou. Sy het probeer om haar bene toe te hou maar die appellant het hulle
oopgetrek en sy is op die grond neergedr uk sodat sy nie kon opstaan nie. Wat sy
ookal vroeër van die gebeure gedink het, kon sy, op haar weergawe, nadat sy die
matriekeksamen afgelê het en sy mense begin vertel het wat met haar gebeur
het, onder andere haar tant e en haar verloofde, nie ande rs as om te besef dat sy
deur die appellant verkrag is nie.
[53] Die klaagster se getuienis dat sy no oit verlief op die appellant was nie en
dat sy self nie gedink het dat sy 'n ver houding met hom het nie is na my mening
verkeerdelik deur die verhoorlanddros aanvaar. Haar verdui deliking waarom sy
nie aan verkragting gedink het nie was juis dat sy gemeen het dat sy 'n
verhouding met die appellant gehad het. Dit is wel so dat sy getuig het dat die
appellant haar herhaalde male verseker het dat hulle 'n verhouding het maar teen
die tyd wat sy haar tante vertel het dat sy 'n verhouding met 'n getroude man het
en toe sy dit 10 maande later vir dr Van Rooy gesê het, kon sy darem sekerlik
self oordeel of sy 'n verhouding het. Die appellant kon immers net vir haar vertel
of, wat hom betref, daar 'n verhouding tussen hulle bestaan en of hy maar net
31
belangstel in sy eie fisiese bevrediging. Of die klaagster van haar kant af gemeen
het dat daar 'n verhouding is, of sy haar maar net onder werp het aan sy wil en of
sy maar net haar fisiese bevredigin g nagestreef het, kon hy nie vir haar
beantwoord nie. Synde 'n meisie wa t matriek geslaag het en wat die
wedervaringe gehad het wat sy gehad het, is dit moeilik om te glo dat sy in
September 2000 nog kon gedink het dat sy en die appellant 'n verhouding gehad
het bloot omrede die appellant so gesê het terwyl sy geen gevoel vir hom gehad
het nie. Die klaagster se reaksie to e die appellant by geleentheid sy vrou
geliefkoos het, dui op moontlike jaloesie en verleen stawing daaraan dat wat
haar betref sy 'n verhouding met di e appellant gehad het. Verdere stawing
hiervan is die feit dat die klaagster herh aaldelik teruggegaan het na die appellant
en telkens weer saam met hom in die bed geklim het.
[54] Na my mening is dit onwaarskynlik dat die klaagster telkens teruggegaan
het na die appellant se hu is vir die redes deur haar aangevoer. Dit blyk uit die
klaagster se getuienis en die uitspraak van die verhoorlan ddros dat sy 'n
intelligente persoon is wat haar nie willoos herwaarts en derwaarts laat stoot nie.
Daar is geen suggestie da t sy sedert die betastings voorval toe sy ongeveer 16
jaar oud was 'n persoonlikheidsverandering ondergaan het nie. Tog wil sy te
kenne gee dat sy nadat sy ha ar aanvanklik teen die appellant verset het toegelaat
het dat hy haar teen haar wil na willekeu r verkrag en betas totdat sy ongeveer 18
jaar oud was en die matriekeksamen afgelê het. Sy het dit nie gedoen omdat sy
enige liefdesgevoel teenoor die appellant gehad het nie, sê sy , maar wel omrede
32
sy lief was vir mev Marx en die kinders en haar eie huislike omstandighede
swak was.
[55] Dit is duidelik dat die klaagster se huislike omstandighede swak was maar
sy het ten minste 'n huis gehad en daar is geen suggestie dat sy swak behandel is
by die huis anders as dat sy nie genoeg aandag gekry het nie. Verder dui haar
beskrywing van haar pa daarop dat die ve rhouding tussen haar en haar pa nie
uitermate swak kon wees nie. Sy het naamlik getuig dat haar pa haar vertrou het
en dat sy hom nie wou seermaak en ver oorsaak dat hy sy vertroue in haar
verloor nie. Die huislike omstandighede in die Marx huishouding blyk eweneens
swak te gewees het. Die klaagster het se lf getuig dat mev Ma rx ‘hel het onder
Johan Marx’. Desnieteenstaande wil die klaagster te kenne gee dat swak huislike
omstandighede `n rede is waarom sy keer op keer na die appellant se huis, waar
sy herhaaldelik teen haar wil verkrag en voortdurend seksueel geteister is,
teruggegaan het. Sy het dit nie alleen vr ywilliglik maar ook t een die verbod van
haar pa gedoen. Indien die klaagster inde rdaad, vir die redes deur haar genoem,
herhaaldelik teruggegaan het na die appe llant se huis, terwyl die appellant se
attensies haar nie aangestaa n het nie, sou sy ten mins te haar bes gedoen het om
geleenthede te vermy waar sy en die appellant alleen in mekaar se geselskap
was. Dit is egter duidelik da t sy en die appellant talle male alleen in mekaar se
geselskap was terwyl mev Marx uithuisig was. Dit het soveel keer gebeur dat ek
nie kan aanvaar dat die klaagster gepoog he t om sulke geleenthede te vermy nie.
Haar skatting is dat sy ongeveer 13 keer met die appellant gemeenskap gehad
het op plekke soos die slaapkamerbed of die rusbank.
33
[56] Nog 'n rede wat die klaagster aa nvoer waarom sy telkemale ingestem het
om weer na die appellant se huis te gaan is dat sy gevo el het sy is dit aan mev
Marx verskuldig om haar te help. Sy wou ook nie iets doen wat mev Marx
agterdogtig sou maak nie want sy w ou nie die huwelik opbreek en aan die
kinders doen wat aan haar gedoen is nie. Dit is moeilik om te aanvaar dat dit nie
vir haar duidelik was dat haar teenwoordi gheid in die huis 'n baie beter kans
gehad het om probleme in mev Marx se huwelik te veroorsaak nie.
[57] Die klaagster het getuig: ‘[E]k is hatig teenoor Johan Marx, ek wil hom
terugkry en ek wil hê hy moet weet, dit wat hy doen, hy gaan een of ander tyd
uitgevang word.’ Later het sy egter getuig dat sy hom met 'n passie gehaat het
vir wat hy aan haar gedoen het maar dat sy hom vergewe het. Die vraag ontstaan
waarom dan en waarom sou sy 'n klag van verkragting en onsedelike aanranding
teen hom lê as dit nie is omdat hy haar verkrag het nie. Beide die
verhoorlanddros en die hof a quo het aanvaar dat 'n verhouding wat skeef geloop
het moontlik die oorsaak kon wees maar het bevind dat daar nie sprake kan wees
van laasgenoemde nie omrede beide die appe llant en die klaagster getuig het dat
daar nie 'n verhouding was nie. Di e verhoorlanddros het geredeneer dat
aangesien daar nie 'n verhouding tussen die appellant en klaagster bestaan het
nie was daar geen rede vir jaloesie aan die kant van di e klaagster nie en is die
enigste gevolgtrekking waartoe gekom kon word dat die appellant sonder die
klaagster se toestemming gehandel het. Die hof a quo was ook van mening dat
indien daar nie 'n liefd esverhouding was nie daar geen rede blyk te wees
waarom die klaagster die appellant va n verkragting sou beskuldig indien
34
gemeenskap met haar toestemming plaas gevind het nie. So os hierbo aangedui
meen ek dat beide fouteer het deur te bevind dat daar, wat die klaagster betref,
geen verhouding tussen haar en die appell ant was nie en dat daar gevolglik geen
rede vir die klaagste r was om jaloers te wees nie. Na my mening is dit duidelik
dat die klaagster gemeen het dat daar 'n verhouding was en dat daar aanduidings
van moontlike jaloesie aan die kant van die klaagster is.
[58] Die verhoorlanddros en die hof a quo het egter na my mening ook
gefouteer om te bevind dat indien geen verhouding bestaan het nie die enigste
afleiding wat uit die klaagster se afkeur vir die appellant gemaak kan word, is
dat die appellant sonder haar toestemmi ng gehandel het. Indien daar wat die
appellant betref geen ve rhouding was nie, het hy valslik aan die klaagster
voorgegee dat daar wat hom betref wel 'n ve rhouding tussen hulle was en was
daar vir die klaagster goeie rede om ve ronreg te voel. Die klaagster het haar
tante vertel dat sy vuil en skuldig voel omdat die man wat ‘dit’ met haar gedoen
het, getroud is en sy lief is vir sy vr ou en kinders. Die klaagster het alle rede
gehad om so te voel of sy nou aanvanklik toegestem het of nie. Sy is ook
heeltemal geregtig om die appellant ten minste gedeeltelik hiervoor
verantwoordelik te hou of sy toestemming gegee het al dan nie. Daar is geen
rede om haar getuienis dat hy die domin ante persoon in di e verhouding was nie
te aanvaar nie. Hy het sy posisie teenoor haar misbruik en so os reeds gesê is sy
optrede skandalig en moreel afkeurenswaardig. Die feit dat sy so 'n afkeur in die
appellant het, kan gevolglik netsowel da araan te wyte wees dat sy nou meen dat
hy haar verlei het en valslik voorge gee het dat hulle, wat hom betref, 'n
35
verhouding het, dit wil sê dat hy lief is vir haar terw yl hy haar inderdaad net
misbruik het.
[59] Die hof a quo het verder stawing vir die klaag ster se weergawe gevind in
die feit dat sy gedurende 1998 twee pogi ngs aangewend het om haarself om die
lewe te bring. Uit die klaagster se eie getuienis het dit eg ter geblyk dat sy
gedurende 1998 verskeie ande r redes gehad het om depr essief te wees. Verder
was die getuienis van dr Van Rooy dat i ndien die klaagster 'n vrywillige party
tot die seksuele toenadering ter sprake wa s, kon sy nog steeds tot dieselfde mate
dieselfde simptome ontwikkel het. In die lig van hierdie getuienis meen ek nie
dat die klaagster se sielkundige probleme enige stawing bied vir 'n bevinding dat
betasting en gemeenskap sonder haar toestemming plaasgevind het nie.
[60] Soos reeds vermeld was dit vir di e klaagster nuus om van dr Van Rooy te
hoor dat sy verkrag is. Volgens sy getu ienis was hy onder di e indruk dat sy
onder die ouderdom van 16 jaar was toe die gebeure plaasgevind het en was dit
die rede waarom hy van mening was dat sy verkrag is. Dit is hierdie mededeling
wat anleiding gegee het tot die klagte te en die appellant. Sy het naamlik dr Van
Rooy se mededeling aan haar verloofde oor gedra, hy het haar oorreed om haar
ouers in te lig en haar pa het toe vir haar gesê om dit verder te voer.
[61] Teen die tyd wat die klaagster met dr Van Rooy in September 2000
gepraat het, het sy die gebe ure al met haar tante en me t haar verloofde bespreek
en moes sy al baie daaroor nagedink he t, maar selfs op daardie stadium het sy
volgens haar getuienis nie gedink dat sy verkrag was nie. Soos reeds vermeld het
die gebeure in haar oë w aarskynlik eers verkragting g eword nadat sy deur dr
36
Van Rooy, op die basis dat sy nog o nder die ouderdom van 16 jaar was en
gevolglik nie, wat die statutêre misdryf betref, kon toestem nie, meegedeel is dat
sy verkrag is. Dit is onwaarskynlik da t dit die geval sou wees indien die
appellant haar forseer het om met hom gemeenskap te hê op die wyse deur haar
getuig.
[62] Ek is vir die voormelde redes van mening dat die klaagster se getuienis
aangaande haar weiering om met die appellant gemeenskap te hê deurspek is
met onwaarskynlikhede. Aan die een kant is daar dus die appellant se
onwaarskynlike weergawe, wat na my me ning tereg deur die verhoorlanddros
verwerp is, dat daar net ee n geval van betasting en een geval van gemeenskap
was. Aan die ander kant is daar die klaagster se onwaarskynlike weergawe dat
daar talle gevalle van betasting en ta lle gevalle van gem eenskap sonder haar
toestemming was.
[63] Die verhoorlanddros se basiese bena dering tot die saak blyk uit die die
volgende pasasie aan die begin van sy uitspraak:
‘Die saak gaan eintlik oor die klaagster se woord teen die beskuldigde s’n. Die
klaagster sê een ding, die beskuldigde 'n ander. In 'n sekere sin is die saak maklik. Of jy glo
die klaagster, of jy glo die beskuldigde. Dan aan die anderkant is die saak weer uiters moeilik,
want wie glo mens nou eintlik.’
Hierdie benadering is verkeerd. Die ver werping van die appellant se getuienis
het nie noodwendig tot gevolg die aanva arding van die klaagster se weergawe
nie. Steeds moet bepaal word of bo re delike twyfel bevind kan word dat die
klaagster se weergawe dat daar geen toestemming was, waar is.
37
[64] By die beoordeling van hierdie vraag is die feit dat die appellant
leuenagtige getuienis gegee het 'n faktor ten gunste van die staatsaak. Hierdie
hof het egter al herhaaldelik gewaarsku dat daarteen g ewaak moet word om nie
oormatige gewig aan hierdie fa ktor te gee nie. Die kor rekte benadering is soos
volg uiteengesit deur Smalberger Wn AR in S v Mtsweni 1985 (1) SA 590 (A)
op 593I-594D:
‘Terwyl die leuenagtige getuienis of ontkenning van 'n beskuldigde van belang is
wanneer dit by die aflei van gevolgtrekkings en die bepaling van skuld kom, moet daar teen
gewaak word om oormatige gewig daaraan te verleen. Veral moet daar gewaak word teen 'n
afleiding dat, omdat 'n beskuldigde 'n leuenaar is, hy daarom waarskynlik skuldig is.
Leuenagtige getuienis of 'n valse verklaring regverdig nie altyd die uiterste afleiding nie. Die
gewig wat daaraan verleen word, moet met die omstandighede van elke geval verband hou.
Hierdie benadering is onlangs bevestig in S v Steynberg 1983 (3) SA 140 (A) waarin the
denkrigting in R v Mlambo 1957 (4) SA 727 (A) op 738B - D en die aanvaarde uitgangspunt
in Goodrich v Goodrich 1946 AD 390 op 396 in oënskou geneem is, en die korrekte
toepassing van die Mlambo-benadering toegelig is. By die beoordeling van leuenagtige
getuienis deur 'n beskuldigde moet daar, onder meer, gelet word op:
(a) Die aard, omvang en wesenlikheid van die leuens, en of hulle noodwendig op 'n
skuldbesef dui.
(b) Die beskuldigde se ouderdom, ontwikkelingspeil, kulturele en maatskaplike
agtergrond en stand in soverre hulle 'n verduideliking vir sy leuens kan bied.
(c) Moontlike redes waarom mense hulle tot leuens wend, byvoorbeeld omdat in 'n
gegewe geval 'n leuen meer aanneemlik as die waarheid mag klink.
(d) Die neiging wat by sommige mense mag ontstaan om die waarheid te ontken uit
vrees dat hulle by 'n misdaad betrek gaan word, of omdat hulle vrees dat
38
erkenning van hulle betrokkenheid by 'n voorval of misdaad, hoe gering ook al,
gevare inhou van 'n afleiding van deelname en skuld buite verhouding tot die
waarheid.’
[65] Indien aan geen rede gedink kan word waarom die appellant nie sou
toegee dat daar betasting en gemeenskap was soos deur die klaagster beweer
anders as dat dit nie met toestemming ge skied het nie sal die feit dat hy valslik
die betastings en gemeenskap ontken het klaarblyklik sterker ondersteuning aan
die staatsaak bied as wat die geval sou we es indien daar 'n ander rede vir die
valse getuienis is. In laasgenoemde ge val is die enigste redelik moontlike
afleiding nie dat hy skuldig is aan be tasting van en gemeenskap met die
klaagster sonder haar toestemming nie.
[66] In hierdie geval is daar meerde re moontlike redes vir die appellant se
valse getuienis. In die eerste plek sou 'n erkenning van die betasting waaraan hy
skuldig bevind is hom skuldig gemaak het aan die statut êre oortreding van
onsedelike aanranding al het dit met toestemming geskied mits behoorlike
bewys is dat die klaagster inderdaad nog nie 16 jaar oud was op daardie stadium
nie. Herhaalde gevalle van gemeensk ap met die veel jonger skoolgaande
klaagster sou hom ook as 'n getr oude man in 'n baie sleg ter lig gestel het al het
die klaagster daartoe toegestem. Dit sou die geval wees nie alleen teenoor sy
vrou en kinders nie maar ook teenoor die gemeenskap in die algemeen.
[67] Die verhoorlanddros wat die klaagst er tydens 'n lang kruisondervraging
onder oë gehad het, he t bevind dat sy 'n geloofwaar dige getuie is. Hy het tereg
bevind dat die klaagster be reid was om toegewings te n gunste van die appellant
39
te maak. Sy het byvoorbeeld getuig dat sy nie haar bene tydens die eerste
betastingsvoorval toegeknyp het nie (die toegewing het wel gekom onder
kruisondervraging nadat sy eers gesê het dat sy wel haar bene toegeknyp het),
dat sy nie tydens die betastingsvoorval gepoog het om op te staan nie (ook in dié
geval het die toegewing gekom onder kruisondervraging nadat sy eers getuig het
dat sy wel gepoog het om op te staan), en dat sy by 'n geleentheid wat die
appellant haar betas het 'n lekker gevoel gekry het. Dit moet egter nie uit die oog
verloor word dat haar getuienis in baie opsigte waarskynlik waar is. Soos die
verhoorlanddros meen ek da t dit baie onwaarskynlik is dat sy veelvuldige
gevalle van gemeenskap en betasting oor 'n periode van twee jaar sou fabriseer.
Sy kon geen voordeel daaruit trek om dit te doen nie. Dit moet egter ook nie uit
die oog verloor word dat al wat nodig is om 'n geval van gemeenskap met
toestemming in verkragting te omskep die weglating van 'n paar woorde of die
toevoeging van 'n paar woorde is. Verder is die klaagster, wat tans 'n getroude
vrou is, se weergawe van wat gesê is en gedoen is tyde ns 'n spesifieke voorval,
waarvan daar talle ander was, vyf jaar vantevore toe sy in standard nege op
skool was, na my mening besonder onbe troubaar. Meer betroubaar is na my
mening haar herinnering van hoe sy dit er vaar het. Alhoewel nie konsekwent is
haar getuienis in hierdie verband, so os reeds aangetoon, dat sy dit nie as
verkragting beskou het nie to t op 'n later stadium toe aan haar gesê is dat dit
verkragting was vir 'n heel ander rede as dat sy nie toegestem het nie. Die
verhoorlanddros het self be vind dat die klaagster ni e altyd ewe indrukwekend
vertoon het nie. Hierby moet nog gevoeg wo rd dat dit blyk uit die klaagster se
40
getuienis dat sy ook soms haar getuieni s aangepas het tot haar voordeel en tot
die appellant se nadeel. So byvoorbeeld het sy getuig dat sy die appellant haat,
net om daarna te sê dat sy haar God gevind het en hom vergewe het; dat sy 'n
verhouding met die appellant gehad het, net om daarna te se dat sy nie 'n
verhouding met hom gehad he t nie; dat sy nie aan die voorval as verkragting
gedink het nie, net om da arna te sê dat sy wel aan die eerste voorval as
verkragting gedink het; en dat sy nie meen dat die appellant haar voor die
beweerde verkragting aan die arm gevat het om te verhinder dat sy weghardloop
nie net om daarna te getuig dat sy we l meen dat hy haar aa n die hand gevat het
om te verhinder dat sy uit die kamer kon wegkom.
[68] In die lig van die voorgaande en nieteenstaande die feit dat die appellant
se getuienis verwerp is, asook die verhoorlanddros se indruk van die klaagster as
'n getuie, meen ek dat di e verhoorlanddros fouteer het om te bevind dat bo
redelike twyfel bewys is dat die be tastingsvoorval en die gemeenskap op 31
Maart 1998 sonder die toestemming van die klaagster plaasgevind het.
Die appellant is dus verkeerdelik aan die gemeneregtelike oortredings van
onsedelike aanranding en verkragting waarvan hy aangekla is, skuldig bevind.
[69] Volgens die klaagster het sy op 9 Oktober 1981 16 jaar oud geword en
was sy 15 jaar oud to e die betastingsvoorval ge durende die September
skoolvakansie van 1997 plaasg evind het. Artikel 14(1)(a ) en (b) van die Wet op
Seksuele Misdrywe 23 van 1957 bepaal:
‘14 Seksuele misdrywe met jeugdiges
(1) Enige manspersoon wat-
41
(a) ontug met 'n meisie onder die ouderdom van 16 jaar pleeg of probeer
pleeg; of
(b) 'n onsedelike of onbehoorlike daad met so 'n meisie of met 'n seun onder
die ouderdom van 19 jaar pleeg of probeer pleeg; of
(c) so 'n meisie of seun uitlok of aanlok om 'n onsedelike of onbehoorlike daad
te pleeg, is aan 'n misdryf skuldig.’
[70] Ingevolge art 261 van die Strafpro seswet 51 van 1977 kan, indien die
getuienis op `n aanklag van onsedelike aanranding nie die misdryf onsedelike
aanranding bewys nie maar wel die stat utêre misdryf van die pleeg van `n
onsedelike of onbehoorlike daad met `n me isie onder `n bepaalde ouderdom, die
beskuldigde aan die statutêre misdryf skuldig bevind word.
[71] Die staat het egter tydens die aa nhoor van die appèl aangedui dat nie vir
`n skuldigbevinding aan enige van die statutêre oortredings gevra word nie
omrede volgens die mening van die staat die ouderdom van die klaagster nie
behoorlik bewys is nie. Nie een van die partye het ons gevolglik ten aansien van
die statutêre misdryf toegespreek nie. Na die aanhoor van die appèl het dit egter
geblyk dat die toegewing deur die staat m oontlik foutief was en is die partye
uitgenooi om skriftelike betoog voor te lê ten aansien van die vraag ‘waarom nie
bevind kan word dat wel bewys is da t die klaagster eer s op 9 Oktober 1997 16
jaar oud geword het en dat die appellant hom derhalwe skuldig gemaak het aan
`n oortreding van die voorme lde art 14(1)(b)) nie’. Beide die appellant en die
staat het daarop aanvullende hoofde afgelewer.
42
[72] Die ouderdom van die klaagster wa s inderdaad gemene saak tydens die
verhoor. Nadat die klaagster sonder besw aar van die kant van die appellant
getuig het dat sy 15 jaar oud was tydens die betasti ngsvoorval het die appellant
se advokaat dit aan haar gestel dat sy op 9 Oktober 1981 gebore is en het sy dit
beaam. Die appellant het dus onomw onde erken dat die klaagster voor 9
Oktober 1981 onder die ouder dom van 16 jaar was en geen formele bewys van
daardie feit was nodig nie. 3 Verder, insoverre die getu ienis van die klaagster ten
aansien van haar geboorteda tum hoorsê getuienis was, het die verdediging deur
sodanige getuienis by wyse van `n direkte vraag uit te lok in effek toegestem tot
die toelating daarvan en was die getuieni s gevolglik ingevolge die bepalings van
art 3(1)(b) van die Wysigingswet op die Bewysreg 45 van 1988 toelaatbaar.
[73] Die appellant se advokaat betoog nie dat nie bewys is dat die klaagster se
geboortedatum 9 Oktober 1981 was nie ma ar, soos ek hom verstaan, betoog hy
dat dit redelik moontlik is dat die be tastingsvoorval eers in 1998, toe die
klaagster reeds 16 jaar oud was, plaasgevind het. In die verband steun hy op die
feit dat die klaagster op `n stadium getuig het dat sy in 1998 15 jaar oud was wat
beteken, as dit saam met haar getu ienis dat sy 15 jaar oud was toe die
betastingsvoorval plaasgevind het, gene em word, dat die be tastingsvoorval eers
in 1998 toe sy 16 jaar oud was plaasgevind het. Verder steun hy op die feit dat
volgens die klagstaat die beweerde on sedelike aanrandings plaasgevind het te
3 S v W 1963 (3) SA 516 (A) op 523C-F; S v Magubane 1975 (3) SA 288 (N) 291 G-H; S v Gope 1993 (2)
SACR 92 (Ck).
43
Pionierstraat, Durbanville terwyl die a ppellant eers op 1 Februarie 1998 verhuis
het na `n woning geleë te Pionierstraat, Durbanville.
[74] Dit is so dat die klaagster op `n st adium getuig het dat sy gedurende 1998
15 jaar oud was. Dit is egter duidelik dat sy slegs verward geraak het ten aansien
van die jaartal. Dit is gemeensaak da t sy vanaf ten mins te Augustus 1997 die
appellant se kinders by sy huis opgepas he t en haar getuieni s was deurgaans dat
die betastingsvoorval plaasgevind ge durende die eersvolgende September
skoolvakansie wat duidelik voor haar 16de verjaarsdag was toe sy die appellant
gaan gelukwens het met sy verjaarsdag op dieselfde dag soos hierbo beskryf.
[75] Na my mening is daar nie enige rede om nie die klaagster se getuienis dat
die betastingsvoorval plaasgevind het en dat dit plaasgevind het op die tydstip
deur haar getuig te aanvaar nie. Di e onwaarskynlikhede en onbevredigende
aspekte in die klaagster se getuienis het betrekking op die vraag of die betasting
deur die appellant en die gemeensk ap met die appellant sonder haar
toestemming geskied het en nie op die vraa g of dit inderdaad plaasgevind het en
wanneer dit plaasgevind het nie. Soos reeds gesê stem ek saam met die
verhoorlanddros dat dit onwaarskynlik is dat sy veelvuldi ge gevalle van
gemeenskap en betasting oor `n periode van twee jaar sou fabriseer. Sy kon geen
voordeel daaruit trek om dit te do en nie. Wat die tydstip waarop die
betastingsvoorval ter sprake plaasgevind het, betref ka n sy beswaarlik `n fout
maak aangesien sy dit kan koppe l aan die eersvol gende September
skoolvakansie nadat sy by die appellant begin kinders oppas het en ook aan haar
16de verjaarsdag.
44
[76] Dit is so dat volgens die klagstaa t die beweerde onsedelike aanrandings
plaasgevind het te Pionierstraat, Durbanvi lle maar die klagstaat beweer ook dat
hulle plaasgevind het gedurende die ty dperk Augustus 1997 tot Oktober 1999.
Dit was deurgaans die klaagster se getuienis dat die appellant eers aan die begin
van 1998 verhuis het en dat die betast ingsvoorval plaasgevind het voordat die
appellant so verhuis het en voor haar 16de verjaardag. Die adres vermeld in die
klagstaat was dus klaarblyklik verkeerd aa ngegee vir soverre dit betrekking het
op 1997.
[77] Na my mening is bo redelike twyfel bewys dat die klaagster nog onder die
ouderdom van 16 jaar was toe die be tastingsvoorval plaasgevind het. Die
appellant het nie aange voer dat hy nie bewus was dat `n onsedelike of
onbehoorlike daad met `n meisie onder die ouderdom van 16 jaar `n misdryf
daarstel nie of dat hy nie bewus was of nie die moontlikheid voorsien het dat die
klaagster onder die ouderdom van 16 jaar was tydens die betastingvoorval nie.
Die appellant se advokaat het tereg ook ni e betoog dat indien wel bewys is dat
die betastingvoorval plaasgevind het en da t die klaagster daartydens onder die
ouderdom van 16 jaar was die appellant ni e aan `n oortreding van art 14(1)(b)
skuldig bevind behoort te word nie.
[78] Onder die omstandighede is ek tevrede dat bo redelike twyfel bewys is dat
die appellant homself skuldig gemaak het aan `n oortreding van art 14(1)(b).
[79] Ten aansien van vonnis ten opsig te van hierdie oortreding het die
appellant se advokaat aangevoer dat `n opgeskorte vonnis van gevangenisstraf
aangewese is alternatiewelik dat die appellant tot korrektiewe toesig gevonnis
45
behoort te word. Die staat het nie gevra vir `n vonnis van direkte gevangenisstraf
ten opsigte van die statutêre oortreding nie maar het betoog dat `n vonnis van
korrektiewe toesig `n gepaste straf sal wees.
[80] In die lig van die feit dat die klaag ster ten tyde van die misdaad bykans 16
jaar oud was op welke stadium die appell ant se dade nie meer die statutêre
misdryf daar sou stel nie, meen ek dat korrektiewe toesig moontlik wel `n
gepaste straf sal wees. Aa ngesien korrektiewe toesig egter nie `n opsie was
nadat die appellant skuldi g bevind is aan die gemene regtelike oortredings van
verkragting en onsedelike aanranding nie is geen getuienis voor die hof geplaas
ten aansien van die toepaslikheid van so’n vonnis in die geva l van die appellant
nie. Artikel 276A van die Strafproseswet 51 van 1977 vere is `n vers lag van `n
proefbeampte of `n korrektiewe beampt e alvorens`n veroordeelde persoon tot
korrektiewe toesig ingevolge art 275(h) van daardie wet gevonnis word. Onder
die omstandighede meen ek dat die saak terugverwys moet word na die
verhoorhof vir die oplegging van vonnis na die aanhoor van verdere getuienis en
betoog ten opsigte daarvan.
[81] Die volgende bevel word gevolglik gemaak:
1 Die appèl word gehandhaaf en di e bevel van die hof a quo word
tersyde gestel.
2 Die skuldigbevindings deur die verhoorhof word tersyde gestel en
vervang met die volgende:
‘Die beskuldigde word skuldig be vind aan `n oortreding van art
14(1)(b) van die Wet op Seksuele Misdrywe 23 van 1957.’
46
3 Die vonnisse deur die verhoorhof opgelê word tersyde gestel en die
saak word na die verhoorhof ter ugverwys vir die oplegging van
vonnis.
___________________
STREICHER AR
CAMERON JA
[82] I have had the benefi t of reading the judgment of my colleague Streicher
JA but regret that I cannot agree with his approach to the evidence or with his
conclusions. This judgment was prepared initially in response to his. I have
since then had the benefit of reading th e judgment also of my colleague Nugent
JA, who agrees with the conclusions re garding the appeal, though not all the
reasoning, of Streicher JA.
[83] This case is about an adult’s se xual predation on his children’s teenage
babysitter who became an intimate of the fa mily. On that we appear to agree.
We differ on whether the state proved that the predatory acts constituted the
crimes of indecent assault and rape. Th ey started when the complainant was
fifteen and led to intercourse when she was sixteen. The question on appeal is
whether the evidence left a reasonable possibility that she consented to the first
genital groping and to the first intercourse.
47
[84] The complainant testified that she refused consent to these first acts. The
complexity in the case arises from the fact that despite this, she remained deeply
enmeshed with the appellant and his fa mily for two years, during which she
testified that she later did consent to sex. The regional magistrate accepted her
evidence, and convicted the appellant of indecent assault and rape. The Cape
High Court (Thring J, White head AJ concurring) di smissed his appeal, but
granted leave for this further appeal.
[85] My colleagues and I differ in our approach to the details of the
complainant’s evidence, and to the evid ence the state called to corroborate it.
But the difference between us is more fund amental. It lies in our approach to the
essentials of the situation the complainant’s evidence in my view depicted: that
of a young girl in a family-like relatio n to a man who subj ects her to sexual
conduct which, despite its non-consensual beginnings, thereafter became at least
partly consensual. Although they discard the appellant’s version as unworthy of
credence, my colleagues consider that the state’s attempt to prove the
complainant’s depiction of this situ ation founders on improbabilities in her
evidence.
[86] Many of the differences in approach to the details in my view stem from
the measure of inherent plausibility one attributes to the fundamentals of the
account itself. My colleagues both consider it improbable that the complainant, a
young girl who claimed to have been s ubjected to sex against her will, would
have continued to associate with a man w ho continued to foist himself on her. I
differ. I do not consider it improbable at all. On the contrary, in my view,
48
despite flaws, the complainant’s account was compellingly convincing, and the
trial court magistrate and the High Cour t were correct to believe her, to accept
the corroboration offered by the state, an d to convict the appe llant of rape and
indecent assault.
Background to the charges
[87] In the winter of 1997, Marlese Douglas, the complainant, was fifteen. She
was a schoolgirl in standard eight at Durbanville High School. She met the
appellant one Saturday afternoon while he was watching rugby with her father
at her parents’ home. He said that he was looking for a young girl ( meisie) who
could help mind his children, Lise-Ann a nd Herman, then respectively in grade
4 and grade 2. He suggested she baby-sit for him and his wife that evening. The
complainant needed the pocket money and readily agreed.
[88] The arrangement was a success, fo r the next weekend she baby-sat again.
Thereafter she went to baby-sit almost every weekend. The Marx residence was
until February 1998 very close to her own home. She started sleeping over. On
these occasions she slept in the child ren’s bedroom. She became closely
involved with the family, and formed deep attachments to the appellant, his
wife and their two children.
[89] She called the appellant ‘oom J ohan’ and his wife ‘tannie Lettie’ –
appellations that signify not merely a generational gap (for the appellant, at
nearly 40, was the same ag e as her father), but resp ect and deference to the
authority of elders. Even though the a ppellant later invite d her to call him
‘Johan’ when they were alone, she continued to call him ‘oom’ at all times.
49
[90] Soon after their first meeting, ‘t annie Lettie’ came to seek her out. She
asked her help in doing ‘listings’ for her estate agency business. So the two of
them drove around together, the complainant helping Mr s Marx with her work
and getting involved in the business. Ev en when the complainant was not baby-
sitting on Saturday evenings, she would pay the ‘tannie’ a visit on a Friday
evening. She found that her girlfrie nds were ‘doing their own thing’ over
weekends, and didn’t want to be alone at home. Often Mrs Marx would invite
her to her bedroom to watch videos, or to pluck her eyebrows, or even just to sit
with her.
[91] They got on extremely well, a nd became close: and Mrs Marx would
phone her and ask her to do this or that favour for her. Th e complainant was
‘mad about’ this sort of thing, because she felt she was he lping Mrs Marx. She
enjoyed doing tasks for Mrs Marx and liked spending time with her and the
children. So they did many things toge ther, working in th e garden, answering
the business’s telephones and doing its books.
[92] For her part Mrs Marx also confid ed in the complainant. She told her
often that there were problems in her marr iage, but that she had to think of her
children. And she gave th e complainant friendship, asked her about her woes
and worries, and – what signified ‘the wo rld’ to the complainant – she had an
affectionate nickname for her, saying to her, ‘Marrie, I love you very much and
I want to be as a friend to you’. ‘To me she was like a second mother’, the
complainant testified, ‘like a friend.’ Later Mrs Marx lent her jewellery for her
50
school-leaving dance. The complainant de rived so much friendship and support
from Mrs Marx that at one stage she wished to leave home to reside with her.
[93] At this time in her own household there was a lack of love and support.
During 1997 and 1998 her pa rents were experiencing a severe financial crisis.
Her father had previously lost everything – house, car, vehicles – and she feared
further financial disaster. Home did no t at that stage of fer much love or
attention. There was ‘a constant quarrelling’. And the complainant was seeking
attention, searching for people who cared , persons who would notice her, ‘who
see that I am there, who care for me a nd can do things with me or to whom I
can talk if I have a problem or with whom I can feel at ease’.
[94] Apart from financial difficulti es at home, the complainant had
experienced ‘very difficult’ childhood years, which led to her receiving
treatment from a number of psychologists: she could not in evidence recall all
their names. Her biological parents had never married. Her mother and her step-
father (whom she regarded as her fath er) had twice divorced. She was eight
when the second divorce occurred, and prove d unable to deal with it. This was
the first occasion on which she receive d psychological treatment. During 1998
and 1999 her parents again considered divorce.
[95] Her father’s financial woes in 1997 and 1998 caused the complainant
great emotional difficulties. She experien ced her parents’ problems intensely –
‘from early childhood I went through ever ything with them’. She was away
from school for a period during this time and became ‘very depressive’.
51
[96] The Marxes treated her as though th ey cared for her, giving her a great
deal of advice: and when she was unhappy or heart-sore, they would say to her:
‘Come over to us. Come and visit us. Come and stay with us.’ She described her
bond with the couple as ‘a relationship of trust, as though they were a mother
and a father to me’.
[97] The appellant himself assured the complainant that she could trust him.
He told her that if there was anything troubling her that she wished to talk
about, she could feel entirely free to come and talk to him in confidence.
Toward the end of her testimony she told the court:
‘Johan Marx came and he made as though … I don’t know if it was genuine or not, but
interested in my schoolwork and what I was doing, in my friends. How I feel about certain
things. And that I felt about him for his compani onship, this is a person who is able to give
love and attention to me, love in the sense of I care for you. And since I was repeatedly told,
“I do care for you”, and that is why I felt, not just for him, but for his wife, because my
parents were quite self-engrossed ( heel op hulle eie ) and I yearned for a father figure I can
almost say and I found this in Johan Marx in a certain way.’
Power relations and the quasi-family situation
[98] These elements of the complain ant’s account may be regarded as
uncontested. They provide the setting in whic h the rest of her evidence, much of
which was disputed, must be evaluated. For they necessitate two factual
conclusions with their corollary:
a. First, when she met the Marxes in th e winter of 1997 the complainant was a
troubled, needful and unsettled teenag er, searching for and in need of
affection and attention. This made her susceptible to influence, pressure and
52
the exercise of power from those in a position of adult authority over her, and
vulnerable to exploitation at the hands of an unscrupulous or predatory adult.
b. Second, although not bonded by blood or upbringing to the appellant and his
wife, she became involved in a close association with them that was akin to a
family relationship, in which they were the elders and she was the child. The
High Court’s finding that this ‘was not far removed from a family situation’,
seems to me not only correct, but cr itical to a proper assessment of the
evidentiary issues.
c. Because of the great discrepancy in their ages and her intrinsically
subordinate position in th is relationship, the comp lainant was particularly
susceptible to the influe nce and authority and power of the elders in the
relationship.
[99] These factors – the co mplainant’s youth, needfulness and vulnerability, on
the one hand; and the situation of quasi-familial trust, authority and
subordination in which she found herself, on the other – cast light on the rest of
her evidence. In particular, they illumina te the central issue on appeal, namely
whether it was proved beyond reasonable doubt that the appellant sexually
assaulted and raped the complainant in the home environment, even though
thereafter she continued to pursue familial relations with the Marxes as a family,
and a quasi-consensual sexual relationship with the appellant himself.
[100] Streicher JA is sceptical about the rapidity and intensity of the
complainant’s affection for and de pendence on Mrs Marx (by which she
explained her reluctance to denounce the appellant at or immediately after the
53
first sexual intrusion, three months after she met the Marxes, as well her
persisting presence in the household). Nu gent JA regards this bond as a tenuous
explanation for the complainant’s subse quent conduct. With respect, this does
not seem to me to show sufficient unders tanding of the bond-formation patterns
of troubled, needful, distressed and lonely teenagers (not to speak of adults). It
seems to me entirely credible that a young girl, in need of attention, could form
such an intense relationship in such a short time, and persist in finding it
valuable despite the imposition on it of an initially non- consensual sexual
relationship. Indeed, it was the complain ant’s very susceptibility that explains
the appellant’s later ability to manipulate and abuse her for his ends.
The indecent assault and the rape
[101] According to the complainant’s evidence, some months after she became
involved with the family, in the Sept ember school holiday of 1997, it became
plain that the appellant’s intentions were by no means purely parental or
altruistic. It started with inappropriate touching and with conv ersations that left
her feeling uncomfortable. He would for instance say, ‘Yes, my wife will be
going to the shop shortly, then you and I will be alone.’ To the adult eye and in
retrospect (the complainant testifie d shortly after she turned 21), the
insalubrious insinuation is plain: to th e vulnerable teenager of half a decade
earlier it must have been confusing and unsettling, if not bewildering.
[102] She accompanied him on a shoppi ng trip during which he inquired
extensively about her persona l relationships. She was not interested in sexual
relations with men, and maintained her li mits. She felt interest in certain boys,
54
but would not allow herself to be pressu red into doing thin gs she didn’t want.
The appellant remarked on this, but then added: ‘A man is going to come who
will be able to soften you up.’ She testified that she did not quite know what he
meant, but felt uncomfortable, because of the very persona l nature of his
questions.
[103] He became ‘vatterig’, inclined to inappropriate physical touching. He
would put his hand around he r body to touch her stomach. She resisted such
intrusions by swatting his hand away and saying ‘No’. If she was sitting at a
table he would come and put his hand over her shoulder to try to touch her
breasts. She resisted by protesting or by getting up and leaving the room.
Initially he accepted her refusal and would leave her.
‘He would for instance do it in passing, walking past in a passage or where he knows I'm
standing alone in a room. And if I said to him, No, don’t, then he turned around and walked
away.’
[104] But he continued trying. And grew more persistent – always when his
wife was not in the vicinity. This in th e midst of a situation whose atmosphere
of predatory ambiguity the complainant described thus: ‘After all it isn’t always
that he definitely did it’ ( dit is mos nie altyd dat hy dit definitief doen nie ). He
would want to kiss her the neck. Late r he started touching her breasts. She
showed her dislike. How, she was asked in cross-exam ination? She replied, By
slapping his hand away and saying ‘No, don’t, I don’t like it.’
‘And then did he take his hand away? – Yes. But then he comes back and tries it again.’
55
[105] When she told him not to touch he r, he would react by ignoring her, by
not speaking to her, by treating her as though she was not th ere. But, she was
challenged, was this not what you wante d? Her reply depicted the conflict the
situation created (and was undoubtedly designed to create) for her:
‘Yes, it [was]. But it felt to me he also said he is for me … he wants to be there for my
problems, for friendship. I must be able to trust him. Now, why, I care for them, I became
fond of them all, why does he do it? Why does he want it from me, if he says that I can trust
him as a friend.’
[106] When pressed as to whether it tr oubled her when th e appellant ignored
her, she depicted the distress that his profession of disinterested commitment, in
contradistinction to his intrusive touching and emotional blackmail, caused her:
‘It wasn’t nice, yes, because in the first place, they are my friends. Now just because I say
to him, “Don’t touch me”, why does he ignore me? Why does he seek such things from me
and then ignore me? Then he isn’t honest when he says that they want to be my friends and be
there for me. That is what troubled me, not the fact that he ignored me, but because of the
intentions that he had.’
[107] No doubt it would have been judici ous for the complainant at this early
stage already to have take n recourse, as her cross-examiner suggested in the
context of the later grosser vi olations, to Child Line or Rape Crisis. But this is
to view the situation with adult dispassion, when the victim was still a child: a
needful and vulnerable child, who was being manipulated by an adult
perpetrator whom she described as delibe rately withholding attention when she
resisted his intrusions.
56
[108] And it is to miss the very point the complainant’s evidence vividly evoked
– that she was entangled in a web of rewards and punishments at the hands of an
elder whose intrusive conduct became increa singly difficult to resist. The very
complexity of the situation lay in the fact that the comforts and rewards it
offered – the attention and love she craved – were give n subject to a sinister
overlay of mounting sexual intrusion. For la ter, as she testifie d, ‘it came to the
point that he touched and did not really bother hims elf with what I said’ ( maar
later het dit gegaan dat hy vat en hom nie juis steur aan wat ek sê nie).
[109] It is in this context that the co mplainant’s evidence regarding the charge
of indecent assault should be assessed. She testified that the first occasion of
unwanted genital touching occurred in the marital bed. The complainant
explained that at the instance of both spouses she would often join them there to
watch videos. One Saturday night in the school vacation of September 1997,
after the couple returned from their outi ng, his wife invited her to watch the
movie. She was already in her pyjamas. The two, woman and girl, were sitting
on the bed when the appellant entered. He insisted th e complainant shift over to
secure for himself a place in the middle under the bedcovers. He was inebriated.
After a while he suggested that his wife go and shower in the bathroom, which
adjoined beyond a walk-through dressing-room. He then used the opportunity of
her absence to place his hand in the complainant’s pyjama pants.
[110] She said, No, and tried tugging at his hand; but he replied, ‘Man, just
wait’ (man, wag nou). The more she asked him to st op he said, ‘Just wait a bit’
(wag net gou). He then came closer and inserte d his finger into her vagina. She
57
tried to stop him but couldn't, and tried to get up but likewise couldn't. When she
told him to stop, he just told her to shush, be quieter, b ecause his wife was
nearby. When he heard his wife return ing from the bathr oom he removed his
finger and made as though nothing had happened.
[111] She was asked in cross-examinatio n why she did not leave the room when
his wife went to the bathroom – since she ought to have an ticipated that he
would try to meddle with her. She replie d that the nature and extent of his
invasive conduct was unexpected:
‘The bathroom door was ajar. I did not think that he would stoop so low as to do that to
me while his wife was in the next room.’
[112] When asked during evidence in ch ief why she did not immediately report
what had happened to his wife when she returned, the complainant explained
that she felt constrained by attachment to his wife, an d by fear for the
consequences for her and the children:
‘I was very fond of his wife and didn’t want to lose her as a friend or as a person to whom
I could go. Also not lose her trust and confidence (vertroue). I did not want to lose her as a
person. And I was scared that if I said something, she would not believe me and choose her
husband’s part and then what becomes of me. Then … I don’t have tannie Lettie any more.’
[113] Later she explained, I didn’t want her to know, because if I lose her, then
what do I have? (omdat ek …en ek wou nie hê sy mo et weet nie, want as ek haar
gaan verloor, wat het ek dan).
[114] She added that she also thought of the children –
‘because I love Lise-Ann and Herman very much. And I did not want to hurt them by also
putting their parents through the process of there being problems that perhaps might cause
58
them to separate. I wanted to avoid everyone getting hurt, so that I rather carry the hurt on
myself’.
[115] In cross-examination she confirme d her worry that his wife might over-
hear any protest on her part:
‘I tried to make him stop, but he wouldn't. And if I jump up at that point and scream, then
his wife would ask, what’s going on. What's the problem. I didn’t want his wife to think badly
or poorly of me in any way or know what her husband is doing, because then, I also thought
of the children and of her. I would do anything to protect them.’
[116] Some of this no doubt occurred to the complainant in articulated form
only afterwards, as her cross-examiner suggested, and some of it was surely also
clarified for her in the psychotherapeu tic and psychiatric processes she later
underwent. But what her evid ence depicted with incontrovertible clarity is that
the appellant’s hand in her pyjama pants placed her in a compromising situation,
since it relied on the very proximity of his wife to ensure her compliance.
[117] The view that non-consensual f ondling while Mrs Marx was near is
improbable in my view overlooks that this was an integral part of the appellant’s
method: it was his wife’s very proxim ity that assisted him in imposing on the
complainant the situation of compromi se, embarrassment, sh ame and resultant
complicity that ensured her silence. It is of course paradoxical that he ensured at
other times that his wife was not in the vicinity: the point is that by both means
he succeeded in contriving concealment from her.
[118] More importantly, like the intrusive talk and touching that preceded it, his
conduct placed the complainant in a positi on of semi-complicity. It is evident
59
that he relied precisely on her awar eness that what was happening was
inappropriate, and drew her into an increasing sense of guilt and mutual
responsibility for it. This sense of sh ared responsibility – however unjust and
illusory – was what enable d the appellant to exact compliance with the deed
while ensuring the complainant’s subsequent silence.
[119] Later she explained in relation to a similar incident that ‘He always put
me in a position [or] situation where I c ouldn't really get away.’ It was the
proximity of his wife in the adjoining room that placed the complainant in a
position where she ‘couldn't really ge t away’. Far from impeaching her
insistence that the intrusion was not con sensual, it formed an indispensable part
of the circumstances that made it possible.
[120] To expect of her, in this sett ing, to denounce him to his wife by
immediate outburst or subsequent confessi on expects of the complainant a level
of maturity and self-possession that she lacked. It shows insufficient
appreciation of her youth, of her vulnerab ility, and of the impact of the quasi-
parental power the appellant as a much older adult male ex ercised over her.
Most importantly, it ignores the guilty co mplicity in which his violative conduct
was designed to entrap her (wag net; sjuut; wees sagter).
[121] This was the pattern of the later similar unwan ted genital touching the
complainant described. On these subseque nt occasions Mrs Marx was not in the
bathroom, but in the be d itself, snuggled in ( ingekruip) on the other side of her
husband. He would, the complainant said, contrive the situation by encouraging
her to get onto the bed, or by getting his wife to invite her if she declined. Then
60
he would ‘worm himself’ in under the bedclothes (inwurm) while he fondled her
under the covers.
[122] The intrusions increased in thei r range. From touchi ng her genitals, he
moved to touching her breasts and then to placing her hand on his penis (from
which she said she always withdrew). The complainant testified that he would
position himself with his back to his wife so that she would be unaware of what
was happening.
‘So, one night it was this, another night just that. Later he eventually behaved in such a
way that everything then happened.’
[123] Shortly after the first incident, on 9 October 1997, the complainant turned
sixteen. The day was coincidentally also th e appellant’s birthday. She arrived at
the house on her bicycle. He later touche d her and kissed her to ‘congratulate’
her ‘for her birthday’. But it was more th an just a kiss, a normal kiss for one’s
birthday. In giving her a ‘birthday hug’, he managed to touch her breasts as well.
[124] In December 1997, as the Marxes were departing on holiday, the
complainant brought gifts for the appella nt’s wife and the children. Thinking
him out because the car he normally used was not outside, she entered. Hearing
water from the shower , she announced herself. He ca lled to assure her that his
wife would shortly return. Sh e waited in the study. He en tered in a pair of short
pants and wanted her to touch his genita ls. He pressed her against the wall and
rubbed himself against her. He asked her whether he couldn't ‘just moisten the
little tip’ ( kan hy nie net punt jie natmaak nie ). She said, No, what are you
talking about? He replied, ‘O h, man, just moistening th e little tip, just quickly
61
moistening the tip’. She said, No. He then kissed her on the neck, and rubbed his
penis against her. When his wife arrive d he hastened to the bedroom, returning
later as if nothing had happened.
[125] On 1 January 1998, when the Marxes returned from vacation, he insisted
that the complainant had not yet greeted him, and wanted to kiss him. She said,
No. When he tried to persuade her, sh e repeated her refusa l. That month she
assisted the family with its move fro m O’Kennedyville, where they were living,
to their new home in Pioneer St, Durba nville. On 31 January, the day of their
move, her uncle and aunt and cousin were killed in a motor accident.
[126] The complainant had turned sixteen and was now in standard nine (grade
11). It was during this time that the a ppellant began what from her evidence can
best be described as a quasi-seduction. In the period January to March 1998, she
said, he began more or less coaxi ng or cajoling her, fawning over her
(pamperlang), about having sexual relations w ith men. And the more she said,
No, she didn’t believe in it, the more he tried to soften her up and convince her
that it was not a big issue or a problem, that it happened quite generally.
[127] The complainant testified late r that at that stage she was not
knowledgeable about relationships or sexual relations and about what happened
when you had sex and how it worked. He told her that he wanted to teach her all
those things about life, because she didn’t know them and he wanted to raise her
for himself (hy wil vir my al daai dinge in die lewe leer, want ek weet dit nie en
hy wil my leer van al die tipe dinge en hy wil my grootmaak vir hom).
62
[128] She testified that the appellant made increasingly explicit and suggestive
remarks to her. Often if she was standi ng against a cupboard or in a corner, he
would come from behind and make movements against her. He whispered in her
ear, ‘I’m feeling like a nice poke now’ ( ek is nou lus vir ‘n lekker steek ). He
said, ‘You know, if I weren’t your father’s friend, I would have poked you long
ago’ (weet jy, as ek nie jou pa se vriend wa s nie, het ek jou al lankal gesteek ).
Other times he would say, ‘I want to poke you so that you scream from pleasure
and that you just want more and more’ ( ek is lus om jou te steek dat jy skreeu
van die lekkerkry en dat jy net meer en meer wil hê).
[129] The complainant’s evidence establis hed that the appella nt entrapped her
in a quasi-seduction in the domestic envi ronment: the compromise, complicity
and conflicting obligation the situa tion created impeded extrication or
denunciation. The critical el ements as revealed in her testimony are that the
appellant mounted a seductive campaign that –
a. exploited her subordinate and dependent position in his household;
b. capitalised on her need for attention, affection and so lace; and, most
importantly,
c. drew her into a complicit and guilty silence that his first suggestive
comments and ambiguous touching had begun to create months before.
[130] The quasi-seduction had a culmin ation of sorts on 31 March 1998 when
the first intercourse took place. Mr s Marx was out. According to the
complainant, she was in the office (which was in the garage adjoining the house)
doing tasks Mrs Marx had assigned to her. These included attending to the
63
telephones, which, she explained, was w hy she felt unable to leave after what
then ensued. The appellant entered the room and ru bbed himself against her,
telling her that he wanted to ‘poke’ her. She said, No. He persisted. She again
said, ‘No, I don’t want to. I've never done it. I'm scared.’ He always told her that
she wasn’t a virgin, that sh e’d slept with her ‘mates’ (hy het altyd vir my gesê,
nee, ek is nie ‘n maagd nie, ek het al met my pêlle geslaap ). (He also claimed,
she testified, that her own father was having intercourse with her ( ja maar jou
pa doen dit ook aan jou.)
[131] He left the office and went to th e bedroom. She continued with her work.
She then heard him calling her from the passage, as he often did. She told him
she was busy, but he called again. Assuming that he was summoning her to help
him or to do something for him, she proceeded to the r oom. As she came down
the passage, she saw him turning around the corner into the dressing room.
[132] My colleague Streicher JA conclud es that it is ‘highl y improbable’ that
the complainant did not know when she proceeded to the room that the appellant
planned to put into effect his wish to have intercourse with her, a view my
colleague Nugent JA appears to share. This seems to me unf airly to impose on
the complainant the wisdom of knowing what subsequently transpired. The
appellant’s suggestive conduct – wide, invasive and lewd – had been occurring
over months. Only in retrospect can its continuation on that day signify any
particular menace. In December already there had been ‘puntjie natmaak’, with
much ‘steek’ talk thereafter. Why, on 31 March, should the complainant divine
that this time his suggestive behaviour would have a more grossly invasive
64
physical product? The extent of the prec eding conduct made it no more likely
that on this occasion he would foist himself on her coitally.
[133] The complainant explained repeated ly in her testimony that the appellant
often summonsed her to do things for him, to run and fetch and bring. There can
be no doubt that she was by this stage deeply enmeshed as a subordinate familiar
in the domesticities of the Marx household. She explained, for instance, that she
helped with the ironing and with storing it, and that the appellant often asked
her, for instance, to fetch sweatpants for him, or to find where she had put it; and
that on this occasion she ha d no reason to be especi ally suspicious of his
summons.
[134] The regional magistrate rightly believed her, as did the High Court. It is in
my view not appropriate to invoke the be nefit of retrospection and to demand of
her a standard of adult wisdom and for esight that the situation did not demand
and which she in any event plainly lacked.
[135] When, following him, she opened the dressing room doors, she saw him
with his trousers down and his penis er ect. He appeared to be putting on what
she assumed was a condom. He said that he wanted to ‘poke’ her. She said, No,
I'm not going to. She wanted to turn a nd leave but he took her by the arm and
started kissing her. He loosened her pant s. She said, No, don’t, please, I don’t
want it ( nee, moenie, asseblief, ek wil dit nie hê nie ). He said, Man, it will be
quick. She said, No, I don’t want to! He said to her, ‘But you do want to’. She
replied, ‘No, I don’t and I'm scared.’
65
[136] He took her and laid her down on the floor: he did so gently so that she
didn’t fall (hy het sag gewerk dat ek nie hard val nie ). His body was over hers.
He pulled down her pants and began to move against her. He thrust into her. She
said, It’s sore. Please, stop! He carried on making up and down movements. She
said to him, Please, stop, it’s sore, I don’t want it. He said to her, Wait, it’s
nearly over, it’ll only hurt for a little while still. He made sounds and said, Wait,
I'm nearly coming, just wai t. He then told her that he had come. He withdrew.
She got up and went to sit on the bed. Sitting down next to he r, he showed her
what the condom looked like, and tied a knot in it.
[137] The complainant testified that sh e got up and went to the other bathroom,
where she realised that she was bleed ing. She did not know that there was
bleeding on losing virginity , and didn’t know what was happening, or whether
there was a problem. The a ppellant, who had departed, now returned. She told
him she was scared: she feared that something had gone wrong: she was
bleeding. Leaning against the doorframe, he told her, Man, you must grow up
for a change. He kissed her on the forehead and told her that nothing was wrong.
He then left.
[138] She testified that she did not rea lly know what had ha ppened with her on
that first occasion, and tried to read up about the process in a medical book her
mother had at home. She avoided the Marxes for a while, and neglected to
phone ‘die tannie’ as she usually did every week. Instead, Mrs Marx then called
her, and asked her to come over:
66
‘Because often she is alone during the day, then she just says, “Come and visit me”, and
then I went, because as I've said, I love her and the children very, very much. And I wanted to
be with them, though not with Johan Marx. And even though I was scared of him, I always
went back, because I had guilty feelings toward her, after what happened, but also because it
was nice for me to be with her and because she was as a friend to me.’
[139] She testified that the appellant had intercourse with her over a dozen
times more. On the first hal f-dozen or so occasions sh e told him that she didn’t
want to, but he took what he wanted ne vertheless. When asked in evidence in
chief whether she ever consen ted, she stated that after a year and a half ‘there
was no more chance for me to say no or yes. It just happened’ ( dit het net
gebeur):
‘He just accepted that it was happening and as he let me understand, this was a
relationship that was between him and me. And that it was right to do this.’
[140] She stated that she controverted his explanation, but that it didn’t help for
her to argue with him. The first few time s she said no, but later she couldn't any
more. She explained that she couldn't resist him anymore. He took the
opportunity to have intercour se with her whenever he could, always when his
wife was away. She explaine d that she threw [resistan ce and refusal] overboard:
he had injured her and taken from her what he wanted. So it no longer mattered
to her, she just let it ride ( ek het oorboord gegooi, dit he t nie meer vir my saak
gemaak nie. Hy het my al klaar te ver seergemaak en klaar gevat wat hy wou hê
… so, ek het dit m aar net laat gaan ). The last half-dozen occasions of
intercourse she acknowledged occurred with her consent as described. On these
occasions she did not say No. She no longer cared what happened to her.
67
[141] The last occasion on which they had intercourse was eighteen months
after the first. It was on her 18 th birthday in October 1 999, shortly before the
matriculation examination and after the farewell function. During this time, she
testified, she was in a state of severe mental distress as a result of the interaction
with the appellant. She went to the Marxes to return the jewellery Mrs Marx had
lent her for the dance, and to show her the photographs. Her mother dropped her
off. Before her mother was to fetch he r again, Mrs Marx had to depart quite
suddenly for Paarl, leaving her alone with the appellant . On this occasion, they
had intercourse without a condom. On previo us occasions when he had not used
a condom, he had withdrawn before ejaculating. Now he did not. He told her it
was his birthday gift to her.
[142] Even though she had been taking contraceptive medication for a skin
condition (which the appellant knew), sh e was overcome with anxiety that she
would fall pregnant. On a school-end vi sit to her aunt, Mrs Henrietta van
Rooyen (‘tannie Thia’), in Plettenberg Bay, after tw o weeks and after some
circumlocution she eventually confided in her that she had been having what she
described as a ‘relationshi p’ with an older man, an d that she feared she was
pregnant.
[143] To her relief they ascertained that she was not: but she told her aunt of
‘the whole situation’: ‘I told her it was a relationship. Then she asked me
everything that happened’ (ek het vir haar gesê dit is ‘n verhouding. Toe vra sy
vir my alles wat gebeur het ). She told her aunt that the first time she had said
No, but that later she did not resist. Her aunt thereupon told her that what had
68
happened was not a relationship, but in fact sexual molestation and rape. Her
aunt told her that in her own best interests she would have to take it up with
someone at some time. But fearing the appellant’s power, and threats he had
made against her and her parents, she felt that she could not.
[144] She begged her aunt no t to her tell her parents – she wanted, eventually,
to tell them herself: if it had to emerge, she wished to tell them herself ( as dit
moet uitkom, sal ek dit doen). In the meantime, although she saw them briefly in
Knysna during this period, she decided to sever her bonds with the Marxes,
initially by remaining in Pl ettenberg Bay, thus avoiding hurt to Mrs Marx and
the children. (Her plans in fact changed and she returned in January to study.)
[145] Fairly early in the new year sh e met Morné Stander, to whom she became
engaged in July 2000, and whom she ma rried fourteen months later. A few
months after she met him, she gained th e confidence to confide in him. They
decided to pay a visit to the appellant. When Morné went to the bathroom, the
complainant told the appellant that he, Morné, would ensure that she brought the
truth to light ( Morné weet en Morné gaan sorg dat ek die waarheid uitbring ).
The appellant’s response wa s that it was her word against his: he would say
nothing had happened.
[146] Morné also encouraged her to tell her parents, which after considerable
agonising she managed to do. She stated th at this occurred in May 2000, though
other passages in her evidence suggest that it occurred later.
[147] In the meanwhile, the complainant te stified, she had been suffering severe
symptoms of psychological distress becau se of the situation with the appellant.
69
In the course of the ‘relationship’ with him, she tried to commit suicide and was
twice admitted to hospital. A psychol ogist, Bennie Marais, treated her for a
‘major depressive episode’ and panic attacks shortly before her school-leaving
examination in November 1999. She did not tell him about the ‘relationship’. In
February 2000 she saw Marais again, without mentioning the matter.
[148] Between 20 March a nd 20 May 2000, she saw a psychiatrist, Dr Sandra
Swart, who admitted her to the Libertas hospital for panic attacks. In cross-
examination the complainant was taxed with a letter from Dr Swart, which
records that she did not respond adequate ly to appropriate medication, but that
Dr Swart had not been aw are of the rapes. In September 2000, after her
engagement to Mornè, having been hosp italised again, the complainant started
seeing a psychiatrist, Dr Willem Johannes van Rooy. To him she told the full
story.
[149] On 23 October 2000, after being sent from Bellville police station to
Parow and thence to Durbanville, she ev entually managed to lay a complaint
with Inspector le Roux of the Durbanvi lle South African Police Services. She
gave him a full statement. The appellant was arrested in May 2001. His trial
commenced in October 2002. In the meantime the compla inant’s [step-] father
had on 31 May 2002 committed suicide.
[150] The complainant explained that sh e eventually confr onted the appellant
because despite her efforts she was not able to deal with what had happened on
her own and within herself: ‘I was too weak, my body gave in, I couldn't last
any more’. Her panic attacks and nightmar es became so severe that she realised
70
that, despite the appellant’s warning th at she would be disbelieved, and his
threats to involve her parents, conf rontation was the only way forward ( die
enigste uitweg):
‘I started getting more and more sick. My panic attacks increased. My nightmares would
not stop. And the doctors gave me advice and I spoke to my husband and the best advice that
was given to me was, to report the case, so that it can finally be dealt with and so that,
whatever should happen, that I can live with it and go forward with my life.’
The evidence of the three further state witnesses
[151] In addition to the complainant, the state called three witnesses: her aunt,
Mrs van Rooyen, her mother, Mrs Br enda Catherine Douglas, and the
psychiatrist who treated her in September 2000, Dr van Rooy. Streicher JA finds
that Mrs van Rooyen and Dr van Rooy did not corroborate the complainant’s
account of what she told them, and holds this against the complainant in his
assessment of her evidence. Nugent JA endorses this approach, which in my
view does not have regard to the way in which the issues emerged in the course
of the trial.
[152] To appreciate the issues canvassed in the evidence of the further state
witnesses, it must be borne in mind what was in di spute at the close of the
state’s case. The appellant faced two ch arges – one of indecent assault, and one
of rape. But each charge spanned a cons iderable period: the first from August
1997 to October 1999; the second, from March 1998 to October 1999.
[153] The appellant, who was defe nded by senior counsel, lodged an
explanation of his plea of not guilty in terms of s 115 of the Criminal Procedure
71
Act 51 of 1977 (the Act). In this he admitt ed regarding the first charge that the
complainant visited him a nd his family regularly ‘during 1998 and 1999’ and
that ‘during about July/August 1999 in th e bedroom of my home in Pioneer St,
Durbanville, I touched the complainan t’s upper thigh and private part and
pushed my finger into her vagina’. This, he stated, o ccurred with the
complainant’s consent and was therefore not unlawful. It became clear during
cross-examination that this admission referred to a single incident.
[154] On the rape charge he stated th at he had sexual intercourse with the
complainant on 9 October 1999 ‘with her consent and cooperation’. He agreed
that the admissions contained in the s 115 statement be formally recorded
against him in terms of s 220 of the Act.
[155] The complainant’s evidence th ereupon recounted repeated unwanted
gropings as well as a number of occasions of non-consensual intercourse during
the periods referred to in the charges, though it also reflected that later the
sexual engagements occurred with her consent in the sense described.
[156] Cross-examined about the appellant’s version of the occasion on which he
admitted inserting his finger in her vagina, the complainant conceded an incident
in the marital bed, with hi s wife apparently sleeping, where she placed her hand
over his and pressed it, admitting that th ereby she assisted him and invited him
to go further. She acknowledged that on this occasion she experienced a form of
sexual awakening: she ‘got a feeling and it was the first time I felt it’. She was
scared and uncertain, because she didn’t want his wife to hear, ‘but there was
also a feeling’ (maar daar was ook ‘n gevoel gewees).
72
[157] Later, in answer to questions from the magistrate she underscored this: ‘It
was the first time that so mething like that had happen ed with me and it was a
nice feeling. And I wanted it to stop, beca use his wife was next to me, but it was
also a nice feeling. I tried to stop it. I grabbed his hand to stop him, but it was a
nice feeling. … I cannot deny it, it was a nice feeling and it was the first time
that I experienced it.’
[158] Regarding the appellant ’s version that the sexual intercourse on 9 October
1999 took place with her ‘consent and cooperation’, the complainant freely
owned that by that stage there was no question of refusal or resistance on her
part. She stated that, in contrast to earlier occasions on which she refused, ‘I did
have sexual intercourse with him on 9 October with my … with my consent’.
[159] At the end of the state case it was therefore common cause that on at least
one occasion when the appellant touc hed her genitals – seemingly that
mentioned in the plea explanation – it was with her consent, and that the
intercourse on 9 October 1999 was also with her consent.
[160] What remained in issue was whet her the sexual interaction was confined
to these two occasions – as the appellan t’s plea explanation pre-figured – or
whether over a prolonged period a series of sexual incidents took place, initially
notwithstanding the complain ant’s refusal and against he r will, albeit later with
her submission and consent.
[161] What seems to have been implic it between state and defence after the
complainant’s evidence was th at, if the state establis hed on the basis of the
complainant’s evidence that a protracted series of sexual interactions took place,
73
a credibility finding in her favour on this issue would resolve the question of her
initial consent. This does not of course follow as a ma tter of logic, but it does
appear to account for the c ourse the evidence of the subsequent state witnesses
took, and for the form the magistrate’s judgment took, to which both Streicher
JA and Nugent JA allude. The focus on the sole ques tion of the complainant’s
consent or lack of it on the occasion of the initial intercourse on 31 March 1998,
and her subsequent conduct in relation to that issue, emerged only later, when
the magistrate convicted th e appellant of a single oc casion of indecent assault
and a single occasion of rape.
[162] It therefore seems wrong to read the evidence of the state witnesses who
followed the complainant as though the issues in cour t then were those that
crystallised later. This a ppears to cast light not on ly on the evidence that Mrs
van Rooyen volunteered, but the questi ons that both the state and defence
counsel put to her. In particular it appe ars to explain the fact that defending
counsel did not cross-examine Mrs va n Rooyen at all as to whether the
complainant reported to her that the first intercourse was without her consent.
[163] Mrs van Rooyen testified that th e complainant arrived at her home in
November 1999 in a highly emotional state, focused on her f ear that she might
be pregnant. After some encouragem ent and prodding, the complainant
eventually told her what had happened to her ( en toe het Marlese vir my vertel
wat gebeur het met haar ). Mrs van Rooyen explained that because of the
complainant’s enormous distress ( Marlese was verskriklik ontsteld ), which
74
included panic attacks durin g the visit, she did not ask her in detail what had
happened.
[164] The prosecutor asked Mrs van Rooye n, What did she tell you? To this she
responded, ‘She told me that a man who was a good friend of her parents
indecently groped her’ (sy het vir my vertel dat ‘n man wat aan haar ouers goed
bevriend was, vir haar onsedelik betas het ). The prosecutor invited her to
continue. She responded:
‘She told me that he indecently groped her and so on and that she had been uncomfortable
with the situation. And asked him to stop it. And that this didn’t really make an impression.
Marlese knew it was wrong. The person’s wife is very well known to Marlese and she loves
the wife and the children very much. Apparently she minded the children on a regular basis
when the wife had to go and work.’
[165] The prosecutor then asked: Did she only say that she had been indecently
groped or what did she say to you? Mrs van Rooyen responded:
‘No, she told me that it was at the beginning that he only groped her and … obscenely
groped her, but that later apparently it went over to the deed (dit het later blykbaar tot die
daad oorgegaan). By this I mean that she said that he had sexual intercourse with her.’
[166] She was not asked to elaborate on this in her evidence in chief. Nor did
the issue arise at all in her cross-examin ation. In questioning recorded over five
pages of evidence, defending counsel did not once raise the question whether the
absence of initial consent was reported to her. Instead, counsel focused solely on
the extent of contact between the comp lainant and her aunt during the period
covered by the indictment, and partic ularly on whether Mrs van Rooyen had
75
seen her before December 1999, and, if not, whether durin g this period they had
spoken by telephone.
[167] Towards the end of cross-examina tion counsel articulated his interest
expressly. He explained that he was trying to establish the complainant’s
relationship with the aunt, how she previously observed her: ‘But if you did not
see her in 1998 and 1999, then we are wasting each other’ s time.’ From this it
would seem that he did not put in issue the other as pects of the complainant’s
evidence in regard to which Mrs van Rooyen could have testified.
[168] This also explains the questions the magistrate th en put to Mrs van
Rooyen. ‘I thought [defending counsel] would touch on this, [but] he didn’t’, he
said: ‘Let me ask it.’ What he then inquired about was not whether the
complainant had reported her lack of con sent to the first intercourse – for that
appears to have been taken for gran ted – but whether the complainant had
reported to her aunt only one, or more than one, incident of sexual intercourse.
Mrs van Rooyen confirmed the latter. In follow-up cross-examination she
affirmed this.
[169] The suggestion that the intercour se on 31 March 1998 might have been
consensual, or that the complainant did not , contrary to her testimony, report to
her aunt that she had said No, does not seem to have arisen at all. The contrary
seems to have been taken for granted. Certainly the defence did not expressly
put in issue during the aunt ’s testimony the complainant’s evidence that she told
her aunt that the first occasions of in tercourse (which the appellant of course
denied entirely) were against her will.
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[170] The magistrate seems to have ac cepted that the complainant might not
have told her aunt in specific terms that she refused consent to the first
intercourse, but then added: ‘In any ev ent I get the impression from Mrs van
Rooyen’s evidence that consen t never occurred to her ( nooit in haar gemoed
opgekom het ) in the conversation. It sounds rather as though she assumed as
self-evident that consent was lacking.’ This observation was in my view both
astute and accurate.
[171] My reading of Mrs van Rooyen’s ev idence is that it was not merely
obvious to her, as the magistrate found, but indeed implicit in her testimony, that
the complainant had told her that both the first groping and the initial sexual
intercourse were against her will: tot die daad oorgegaan is directly linked to
onsedelik betas , which is directly re lated to the unavailing gevra het om
daarmee op te hou.
[172] At all events, at worst for the stat e – on whom of course rested the onus of
establishing the charges beyond reasonable doubt – and at best for the appellant,
Mrs van Rooy’s evidence was ambiguous, bu t could have been clarified by a
single simple question: did the complainan t tell you that she refused consent to
the first intercourse? The st ate was disbarred from asking this, since it would
have been impermissibly leading. Defe nding counsel – an experienced silk –
either overlooked it, or chose not to ask it. This, it se ems to me, was because the
answer was both implicit and obvious.
[173] During argument, defending counsel indeed advanced an argument, with
which the magistrate dealt, that the complainant had not specifically reported her
77
refusal to her aunt. But argument wa s on 11 December 2002, some seven weeks
after the evidence was concluded on 16 Oct ober. By the latter date, as appears
from the magistrate’s judgment, the reco rd had been typed. Counsel was of
course free to advance any argument the record supported; but the course of the
trial suggests that it was an afterthought.
[174] And even if counsel deliberately did not question the aunt on this point
because he hoped to extract a tactical advantage from an ambiguity in her
evidence, I do not believe that there was any warrant for him to have done so, or
for it to be done now.
[175] The evidence of the complainant’s mother did not contribute materially to
the resolution of the factual disputes, exce pt in the following r espects. First, she
confirmed the complainant’s relative sexual naiveté befo re the relationship with
the Marxes. Second, she corroborated th e domestic difficulti es the complainant
experienced during her adolescence an d during her involvement with the
Marxes. Third, she specific ally confirmed that the co mplainant’s attachment to
Mrs Marx was profound and strong ( ‘n besondere hegte band tussen hulle
gewees, iets wat ek nie kon beskryf nie, wat vir my onmoontlik geklink het).
[176] Fourth, the complainant’s mother te stified that the complainant reported
to her that she had been ‘molested’ (gemolesteer) by the appellant. The word is
significant in relation to the inferences my colleague Streicher draws from the
testimony of Mrs van Rooyen and Dr van Rooy. It seems to indicate that a wide
and encompassing language of sexual abuse (molestation) was used, in contrast
to terms of more lawyerly precision. As with Mrs van Rooye n and Dr van Rooy
78
(to whom I return below), there was no question in th e evidence of the mother
that the complainant gave consent: the contrary was both implicit and obvious.
[177] Lastly, a confusion in the compla inant’s evidence – namely during which
month in 2000 she informed her pare nts – was compounded when the mother
testified that her daughter informed he r in August 2000 – not in May, as the
complainant testified, nor in or after September (to which I return later).
[178] It is against this background that the evidence also of Dr van Rooy, the
last state witness, must be evaluated. He testified that he saw the complainant
for seven or eight consultations betw een 13 September an d 30 October 2000.
She reported intimacy problems with her fiancé and th at she couldn't trust any
man. This eventually led to her admitti ng to Dr van Rooy ‘that she was sexually
molested from a young age’, and that this consisted both in her being groped and
that penetration had also taken place ( dat sy beide betas is en dat daar
penetrasie ook plaasgevind het ); and that this happened before the age of 16:
‘she couldn't give me a precise age when it happened for the first time’. (During
her evidence the complainant stated that she told Dr van Rooy everything after
he realised that ‘there was a hidden agenda behind me’ – hy [het] agtergekom
daar is ‘n verskuilde agenda agter my).
[179] In cross-examination it emerged that Dr van Rooy’s notes recorded the
following: ‘Sexually molested by pare nt’s house-friend’. These notes also
recorded that she told her aunt in December 1999, as well as her fiancé, two
weeks before seeing Dr van Rooy. He proceeded (appare ntly rendering his
notes): ‘She referred to a business friend of her father who sexually molested her
79
and mentioned that the extent of it was groping ( betasting) and penetration and
that it was influencing her sexual relationship with her fiancé.’
[180] Dr van Rooy added that he had not made a note that the penetration
occurred before the age of 16, but that that is what he had understood.
Thereupon, he testified, he informed the complainant ‘that it is basically
statutory rape if someone under the ag e of 16 should have sexual intercourse
with a female person’.
[181] ‘Sexual molestation’ that embr aced penetration in a psychiatrist’s
consultation points strongly, if not in eluctably, to an assumed absence of
consent. Indeed, the question whether th e complainant expressly told Dr van
Rooy that she had initially refused cons ent to intercourse did not specifically
arise. Nor was the question put by eith er counsel on either side, or by the
magistrate. Defending counsel’s interest appears to have been principally to
establish a contradiction with the compla inant’s evidence in relation to her age
at first intercourse as reported to th e doctor. (In her evidence it had been
clarified, after she initially testified to the contrary, th at she had in fact already
turned 16 when, on her version, the first intercourse occurred.)
[182] It is important in th is respect that even at tr ial the complainant herself
showed quite a measure of uncertaint y about precisely how old she was at
material stages of the violation. She st ated at one point that the intercourse
occurred over a two and a half year pe riod, but accepted correction from the
cross-examiner. Immediately thereafter she testified twice that she was fifteen at
the first intercourse. She said ‘1998 I was in standard 7, I was 15. 31 March I
80
was 15.’ The cross-examiner carefully t ook her through her birthdays, after
which she readily conceded with an apology that she wa s already sixteen at first
intercourse (ekskuus, my datums … ja ). But then she went on to express the view
that under-age sex was prohibited until eighteen.
[183] It is significant, as pointed out ear lier, that her mother testified that the
complainant reported to her, after speak ing with Mornè (seemingly before the
consultation with van Rooy, though as mentioned this is not clear) that she had
been ‘molested’ (gemolesteer).
[184] Consent is no defenc e to a charge of under-ag e sex. Hence, once Dr van
Rooy formed the impression that the first intercourse occurred before the
complainant turned 16, the matter of express refusal would not have been
significant to him. This appears to be another reason why the question was
simply not raised with him during his evidence.
[185] I therefore respectfully differ fro m my colleagues’ conclusion that the
evidence of either Mrs van Rooyen or Dr va n Rooy is at odds with that of the
complainant. In my view, her evidence th at she informed both of them of the
non-consensual nature of the sexual inte raction the appellant initiated should be
accepted. The narrow focus on the sole question of consent on 31 March 1998
emerged only later, and it would be an error to make unjustified deductions from
the conduct of a trial in which the issue had not yet crystallised in that form.
The appellant’s evidence
[186] The appellant testified, in accord ance with his plea explanation, that only
two incidents of sexual intimacy occu rred. Though he depicted the complainant
81
as a petulant, attention-seeking adolescent who thrust herself upon him, he did
not seek to controvert the main elemen ts of her account of the progression and
intensity of her relationshi p with his family. In fact, of the complainant’s
relationship with his wife, he voluntee red that it was ‘brilliant’. Somewhat
tellingly, at one point in his evidence he referred to her as ‘die kind’ (the child).
The magistrate’s judgment
[187] Nearly six months after eviden ce and argument were concluded, on 2
May 2003, the regional magistrate, Mr E Louw, delivered a 65-page judgment,
in which he exhaustively set out and anal ysed the evidence. He stated that the
appellant delivered his evidence in a ‘fairly satisfactory manner’ ( lewer heel
bevredigend sy getuienis) and that, broadly seen, there was not much criticism to
be levelled against his evidence or the manner in which he conveyed it.
However, viewed in more detail, he considered that criticism did emerge.
[188] Having examined in detail the cont radictions and discrepancies in the
complainant’s evidence, the magistrate concluded:
‘The complainant’s evidence is too detailed to be fabricated. That possibility simply
doesn’t exist. There is no reason why she should figment or fabricate the case against the
accused. Although complainant’s evidence is susceptible to criticism, there is not sufficient
reason to reject her evidence in totality. Note, it is emphasised here that it is not being said
that the complainant’s evidence is without fault or criticism. The question is rather whether
the inconsistencies, deviations and improbabilities in complainant’s evidence should have a
destructive effect on the State’s case. For the reasons referred to above judged in totality, I am
of opinion that this should not be the case. On the other hand there is also not really much that
can be brought in against the accused’s version, except for a few improbabilities and
82
deviations to a lesser extent. Standing alone his evidence is convincing, but in the totality of
the evidence the single-standing conviction of his evidence is crystallised out.’
[189] The magistrate at this stage poi ntedly alerted himself to the proper
approach to assessing whether the st ate’s case has been proved beyond
reasonable doubt when measured against an accused’s conflicting version. He
quoted from S v Mbuli 2003 (1) SACR 97 (SCA) at 110 and S v Chabalala 2003
(1) SACR 134 (SCA). These cases in turn refer to S v van Aswegen 2001 (2)
SACR 97 (SCA), in which the strictur es against ‘compartmentalisation’ of
evidentiary considerations expressed in S v van Tellingen 1992 (2) SACR 104
(C) and S v van der Meyden 1999 (2) SA 79 (W) were endorsed. The point is
that the totality of the ev idence must be measured, not in isolation, but by
assessing properly whether in the light of the inherent strengths, weaknesses,
probabilities and improbabil ities on both sides the balance weighs so heavily in
favour of the state that any reasona ble doubt about the accused’s guilt is
excluded.
[190] This is what the ma gistrate proceeded to do:
‘Superficially considered we here have to do with a case where there not much of a
difference in choice exists between the accused’s and the complainant’s respective cases. But
scrutinised from closer under the magnifying gl ass, when the merits of the state case are
weighed against and compared with the merits of the defence case, then the state case stands
so much stronger and so much higher above the defence case that the power of conviction it
embodies and exhibits becomes compelling. The evidentiary power of the state case stands
unimpeached and unimpaired and strong in the face of a full-scale assault from the accused’s
83
version, to such an extent that the court cannot find that the accused’s version can be
reasonably possibly true.’
[191] In my respectful view the sugges tion that the magist rate misdirected
himself in his basic approach to the evidence is not justified.
[192] After the appellant’s conviction on both counts ‘as charged’, the
applicability of the minimum sentenci ng legislation (Criminal Law Amendment
Act 105 of 1997) arose. The magistrate delivered a further judgment making it
clear, by reference to his earlier judgment , that he had found the appellant guilty
on the basis of a single incident of ra pe (and seemingly also one instance of
indecent assault). It is in these circumstances that the focus regarding the
complainant’s evidence seems to have shifted exclusively to the question
whether the state proved be yond reasonable doubt that she withheld consent on
the first occasion of genital touching a nd on the first occasion of intercourse on
31 March 1998.
[193] In assessing the credibility of th e complainant, the magistrate, who saw
her testify over two days in the witness stand (14 and 15 October 2002), gave
thorough consideration to the aspects of her evidence that were susceptible to
criticism. He concluded:
‘Seen broadly and with the exception of the negative aspects of her evidence, the court
experienced her as a brilliant witness. Sometimes she gave answers in cross-examination that
surprised the court and that I didn’t think would issue from her mouth. She gave relevant
answers. She was straight and direct without prevarication (sonder om doekies om te draai).
She did not hesitate to give the accused any benefit where it was necessary.’
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The High Court judgment
[194] In confirming the magistrate’s findings, the High Court did not merely
apply the well-known approach to trial-cour t findings of fact and credibility this
court enunciated in R v Dhlumayo 1948 (2) SA 677 (A) 705-706. The Dhlumayo
approach emphasises the trial court’ s advantages in seeing and hearing the
witnesses: but it is really ‘no more than a common sense recognition of the
essential advantages which the trial j udge has had, as a consequence of which
the right of the appellate court to come to its own conclusions on matters of fact,
free and unrestricted on legal theory, is necessarily in practice limited’ (per
Davis AJA, Greenberg JA concurring, at 696).
[195] Thring J went beyond Dhlumayo. On his own reading of the record, he
independently endorsed the magistrate’s credibility findings. He recorded that he
could ‘find no fault with the manner in which the magistrate analysed and
evaluated’ the complainant’s evidence: ‘he did it in a balanced and just manner’.
He added that ‘on reading th e record the evidence of the complainant, in my
opinion, appears convincing. Her answers to questions are in all cases direct and
unambiguous, and she at no stage dur ing her long and exacting cross-
examination tried to evade or elude an y question. On the contrary she made
various concessions in the appellant’s favour where it would have been easy for
her, if dishonest, not to do so. These concessions she made candidly and without
circumlocution.’ Later Thring J summarised thus:
85
‘In conclusion this court is clearly of the opinion that the conviction of the appellant is
justified on the evidence, and that there is no reason to deviate from the magistrate’s findings
or to meddle with them.’
Assessment of the state case
[196] It is in my view not hard to ap preciate why the magistrate found that the
complainant was a ‘brilliant’ witness, and why the High Court affirmed his
conclusions. The complainant’s eviden ce spans nearly 200 pages of typed
record. She was subjected to cross-examin ation at the hands of senior counsel
that was not merely rigorous, but grue lling, repetitive and (no doubt to some
extent unavoidably) intrusive. She t estified after surviving a psychological
ordeal that included attempted suicide du ring the relationship with the appellant
and hospitalisation for psychiatric reasons thereafter. The core of her story
emerged quite unshaken: that though she had become entrapped in a long quasi-
consensual sexual association with the appellant, she had said No on the first
instance of genital touching and No again on the first occasion of sexual
intercourse.
[197] She testified with dignity and ca ndour about events that incontestably
caused her great anguish. She sketched the interaction between her and the
appellant in all its nuances – a complex na rration of engagement, reliance, trust,
intrusion, invasion, violation and betrayal. Twice in her evidence,
dispassionately observed by the regional magistrate, she broke down: both times
he judged her expressions of distress au thentic, as indeed is manifest from the
record.
86
[198] Why did she remain enmeshed? Her evidence portrayed with considerable
power the subtle difficulties that arose when the appellant, in a situation of
familial power and subordination, intrude d on her integrity, imposed his will on
her, and overbore her resistance. That si tuation necessarily entailed a position of
compromise for her, since she was made a party, however unwillingly, not only
to the sexual act, but to its subsequent concealment. Shame, guilt, fear and a
sense of shared transgression were the result. The reasons that ensured her
submission were also the reasons that secured her silence, and the very
compromise in her position made her vulne rable to challenge when later she
tried to hold the appellant to account.
[199] The complainant’s testimony illustra tes the assertions of improbability
and implausibility that unavoidably attend a situation of this kind. At the time
she thought that she had good reason for remaining silent. She feared disgrace,
scandal, opprobrium, parental disgust, th e fear of being disb elieved (constantly
invoked by the appellant), a nd, she testified, the fear that the a ppellant would
injure her parents in business or by exposing details of their past.
[200] Clearly she lacked the strength of will and courage needed to speak out
earlier. Yet it is manifest from her ev idence that she believed that the sexual
violation that occurred at the start was negatived by her failure to resist
effectively the appellant’s gropings and his later insistence on full intercourse.
She said that she had not wanted to hurt his wife, and was sure that it was she
who would be considered the betrayer. She felt guilty for doing anything that
might adversely affect Mrs Marx and the children. She wanted to be a part of
87
their family: yet by her failure effectiv ely to resist the predations, and her
consequent apparent complicity, she jeopa rdized what she most desired. With
the benefit of adult dispassion this is all no doubt perfectly simple to divine.
[201] Yet the complainant’s evidence powerfully portrayed the collusive
relationship of shared guilt and secrecy that entrapped her. Her feelings of
shame and complicity not on ly operated to secure her silence; in the chill
atmosphere of judicial scrutiny, so essential a safeguard against false
incrimination, they wer e difficult to articulate. Yet her evidence speaks
eloquently of them.
[202] The notion of shared guilt a nd sexual and moral contamination,
articulated more than once in the co mplainant’s evidence, not only ensured
silence; later, when the appellant was sou ght to be held to account, a failure to
understand their coercive power should not result in unjust questioning of her
credibility.
[203] The phenomenon of domestic sexual predation – of whic h this case, on
any view, is a distressful example – requires like any other crime especial
understanding, appropriate to its distin ct characteristics. The domestic or
familial predator’s means are not violen ce or physical assault; his weapons not
the knife or firearm; his means of subord ination not the terror of the victim. He
exploits the opportunities that intimate engagement offers, and the physical
spaces the home affords, to prey upon his vi ctim. And he uses the ties that bind
him to her – often both emotional and material – to secure both compliance and
concealment.
88
[204] When the victim is less than half his age, as here, and subject to his
influence and authority as an elder, these factors operate with acute force. When
she is a child craving affection and a ttention, as the complainant was, her
peculiar susceptibility to abuse and e xploitation must be appreciated to
determine fairly and justly whether all the elements of her account are truthful,
even if she failed to de nounce him promptly or to remove herself from his
proximity thereafter.
[205] The question in every criminal cas e is of course whether the state has
proved beyond reasonable doubt that the sexual violation charged did occur. But
failure to appreciate properly how feeli ngs of guilt, complicity, fear and shame
may in a domestic or familia l situation operate to entrap a victim could lead to a
failure of justice. In my respectful view th is case offers a signal instance of that
danger.
The conclusions of the majority
[206] My colleagues consider that th e appeal should succeed, and that the
appellant’s conviction and sentence should be set aside. The appellant’s version
they cast aside as wholly improbable. But they take the view, for somewhat
diverging reasons, that the complainant’s account cannot be accepted.
[207] Streicher JA considers that the co mplainant’s version is ‘riddled with
improbabilities’. Regarding the genita l touching, he fi nds it ‘somewhat
improbable’ that the appe llant would grope the comp lainant against her will
with his wife in an adjoining room with the door ajar, and even more improbable
that the later more extensive groping wo uld occur in the mari tal bed without the
89
complainant’s consent. He states that the complainant could give no explanation
for not simply walking away th at first evening. Her conduct after the incident in
conveying birthday greetings to the appellant without appa rent resistance to his
kissing her and touching her breasts lends support in his view to the inference of
consent, as does her repe ated return to the Marx household. He finds it
implausible that after a few months the bond with Mrs Marx could have been so
intense as to draw the complainant back.
[208] This seems to me to approach the evidence with insufficient appreciation
of the semi-familial context in which the sexual violation took place. My
colleague Nugent JA accepts the context, but rejects the complainant’s account
because like Streicher JA he considers that the other stat e witnesses did not
corroborate the complainant, and because he considers that if she had been
sexually assaulted against her will she would not persistently have allowed
herself to be alone with the appellant ther eafter. I respectfully differ from these
conclusions.
[209] Regarding the alleged rape, Stre icher JA, as mentioned, faults the
magistrate for accepting the complainant’s evidence that she did not know that
the appellant proposed to have intercour se with her when she responded to his
call from the passage. He finds that the fa ct that she entere d the room through
the closed doors casts doubt on her credibility, especially her evidence that she
resisted his attempts to grope her. He finds further that her evidence does not
square with that of her a unt Mrs van Rooyen, and that it is improbable that she
told her aunt what she says she did. He also concludes that the complainant
90
never thought that what happened constitu ted rape, but that she was constrained
to claim that she did so think because she realised that, if the intercourse
occurred as she claimed, she probably would have t hought that. He also rejects
her evidence that she told Dr van Rooy that she refused consent.
[210] Streicher JA condemns the conduct of the appellant as ‘a disgrace and
morally reprehensible’. He finds that the complainant had reason to feel dirty
and guilty, and to hold th e appellant at least par tially responsible for her
feelings. He finds no reason to reject the complainant’s evidence that the
appellant was the dominant person in th e relationship and concludes that the
appellant abused his position and that his conduct was scandalous.
[211] He nevertheless finds that the compla inant learnt only from Dr van Rooy
that she had been raped; that it was the doctor’s er roneous inference (derived
from the wrong premise that she was under-age at th e time) that triggered her
revelation to her fiancé a nd her parents, which in tu rn led to her laying the
charges against the appellant.
[212] These conclusions are in my view not justified. It is correct, as the
magistrate emphasised, that there are co ntradictions and inconsistencies in the
complainant’s evidence. This is not su rprising. She was testifying in October
2002 about events that started more than five years before, when she was not yet
sixteen. She had in the me antime suffered acute psychological distress and been
hospitalised repeatedly for it. From th is she had emerged to relate a compound
and nuanced account of domestic sexual predation and violation which at its
core clearly and consistently reflected a refusal of consent to the initial sexual
91
acts. If her account had been free of inconsistenci es and occasional
contradictions, its authenticity may have been more difficult to credit.
[213] The question is what weight to acco rd these inconsistencies. I do not share
my colleagues approach to the inconsis tencies in the complainant’s evidence.
Some of apparent contradictions in my view derive from an unwarranted
approach to potentially ambiguous eviden ce. Others are insubstantial, or
immaterial, or both. In a number of instances, the c onclusions adverse to the
complainant are in my view based on a misunderstanding, or misinterpretation,
of the evidence.
[214] Thus, Streicher JA stat es, regarding the first gr oping in the marital bed,
that the complainant contradicted hersel f in claiming that sh e had ‘pinched’ her
legs together ( toegeknyp) in order to thwart the intrus ion. This conclusion is in
my view erroneous. The complainant wa s asked how the appe llant managed to
insert his finger into her vagina ( hoe het hy dit reggekry om sy vinger in u
privaatdeel te steek ) against her will when they were both sitting against the
head of the bed; did she cross her legs or press her legs together, for instance
(het u, u bene gekruis en u bene teen mekaar gedruk byvoorbeeld) ? In response
she said:
‘Yes, I was sitting, I pinched closed and I took my hand and I tried to pull his hand out
(ja, ek het gesit, ek het toegeknyp en ek het my hand gevat en ek het sy hand probeer uittrek). I
was watching TV, it was unexpected, it is not as if I was sitting waiting for him to go and
press his hand into my pyjamas (broek). Because I did not expect that such a thing would
92
happen to me. I had never experienced such a thing in my whole life. Here this great big man
(die grote man) comes and does it.
Can I ask you, did you pinch your legs closed (toegeknyp) or not? – No. …’
[215] After an intervening question sh e was asked a second time (and later
again) whether she ‘pinched’ her legs closed. She replied each time without
hesitation and with perfect clarity that she did not.
[216] This context shows that on its firs t appearance ‘toegeknyp’ – not a word
the cross-examiner used, but one the complainant intro duced in response to his
question – referred not to her legs, but to her vagina ( toegeknyp en … probeer
uittrek). The grammatical form of both ‘toegeknyp’ and ‘uittrek’ points to a
single shared, though unstated, anatomic al object, namely her vagina. Had her
reply intended to refer to her legs she would have ec hoed the cross-examiner’s
words by using not only ‘gekruis’ or ‘gedruk’, but also ‘bene’ (legs).
[217] Significantly, the cross-examiner himself seems to have understood her
response thus, for he then adopted her wo rd ‘toegeknyp’, and shifted the inquiry
to her legs: to which she unhesi tatingly answered ‘No’. The supposed
contradiction therefore does not exist.
[218] This may seem a trivial instan ce. And indeed it is. Even if the
complainant had meant to refer to her legs and not her va gina in her first
mention of ‘toeknyp’, whic h is improbable, her im mediate clarification
thereafter that she did not pinch them clos ed would surely more than adequately
mitigate what was in all likelihood an in advertent error of initial recollection.
Indeed, the immediate correction would redound to her credit.
93
[219] My colleague Streic her JA considers the ‘toe geknyp’ issue important
enough to mention it no fewer than thr ee times. In my respectful view this
illustrates a general approach to the complainant’s evidence which is not
justified.
[220] Thus, too, he mentions twice and counts against the complainant her
apparent absence of resistance to the appellant’s intrusive kiss and fondling on
her sixteenth birthday. In my view it is manifest from the context of her
narration that she was describing all the intrusions at that stage as unwanted.
Indeed, she demonstrated in the witnes s stand how his touching her breasts on
that occasion was suppo sedly incidental to what he proffered as a birthday hug.
To require of her in this situ ation of ambiguous violation ( dit is mos nie altyd
dat hy dit definitief doen nie ) to articulate her disaffec tion seems to me not only
unfair to her as a witness but to miss the point of the means the sexual predator
was employing.
[221] Thus, again, Streicher JA cites agai nst the complainant, as an instance of
her adapting her evidence to her own a dvantage and to the detriment of the
appellant, that ‘she testifie d that she hated the appella nt, only to say thereafter
that she has found her God and forgiven’ hi m. With respect, this is not a just
representation of what she said. She re ferred three times to her Christian
convictions – once in her evidence in chief and twice in cross-examination. Each
time it was in the context of acknowledgi ng the embitterment and hatred that at
one stage she had felt toward the appellant. ‘I lost my respect for him’, she said
in evidence in chief. ‘I was hurting, I was filled with hate (hatig) toward him.’ In
94
cross-examination it was she who volunteered that she wanted to confront the
appellant in 2000 because ‘I was bitter wi thin’, and because she wished him to
share the fear and suffering she had e xperienced. She affirm ed when the cross-
examiner took this up that sh e had wanted to get at him ( u wou hom bykom? –
ja). All this referred to her previous feelings.
[222] Streicher JA quotes an excerp t from the evidence in which the
complainant uses the present tense ( ek is hatig). With respect, his understanding
of the extract is mistaken. This emer ges a few lines later when the cross-
examiner himself also uses the present tense, though he too is clearly referring to
the past (u is hatig teen hom, maar terselfdertyd voel u, u is in ‘n verhouding met
hom). The context as a whole leaves no doubt that she was referring, and was
rightly understood by her questioner to be referring, to her feelings of
resentment and bitterness toward the appe llant at an earlier stage during their
‘relationship’, and not when she was testifying.
[223] It is in this cont ext not difficult to appr eciate why Davis AJA and
countless other judges of this court have placed a premium on the presiding
judicial officer’s first-hand assessment of the proceedings a nd of the credibility
of the witnesses.
[224] At the end of her cross-examination it was at last put to her, as the sole
motive advanced for falsely incriminating the appellant, that she still hated him
and would do all in her power to see him go down ( u haat hierdie man wat hier
sit en u wil alles in u vermoë doen om hom te sien ondergaan ). In response, she
asked the magistrate whether she could sa y something ‘personal’, ‘how I feel’.
95
The magistrate assured her she could. She then related the views that twice
before she had adumbrated, namely that previously she had hated the appellant
and had felt great bitterness toward him, but that in terms of her Christian faith
she had now forgiven him.
[225] Her reasons for proceeding with the charges despite forgiveness she stated
and re-stated with clarity and force: she wanted justice to be done; she wanted
people to know what Johan Marx had done; and she wished to prevent his doing
it again.
[226] Whatever the rationalist position on Christian forgiveness, it is on ancient
authority quite possible, both doctrinally and logically, to forgive another at a
spiritual level while wanting justice to be done in the temporal sphere. It is
therefore incorrect to suggest that the co mplainant stated that she still hated the
appellant while contradictorily claiming to have forgiven him.
[227] As is apparent, I differ from my co lleagues also on other aspects of their
approach to and assessment of the evid ence, which seem to me to stem from
insufficient appreciation of the particular quasi-familial setting of the crimes that
were committed and from an unwarranted scepticism about the fundamentals of
the situation the complainant’s evidence depicted.
[228] Telling in this regard is the conc lusion by both Streich er JA and Nugent
JA that the complainant claimed that on the first occasion of intercourse the
appellant physically overpowered her. This in my view is not correct. The
complainant did testify, as my colleagues point out, that the appellant loosened
her pants against her wishes and pulled down her pants and underclothes despite
96
resistance and that he arrested her intended departure by catching at her arm. But
this does not constitute ‘physical overpowering’, and the complainant’s evidence
made it plain that she did not consider that physical force had been used. To
suggest the contrary is to mistake th e essential nature of the violation her
evidence conveyed.
[229] In the complainant’s evidence in chief there was no suggestion at all that
she had been ‘physically overpowered’. What she lu cidly depicted was an
attempt by a seducer to overcome by pers uasion the reluctance of his children’s
teenage babysitter to agree to intercour se, and how he then went ahead despite
her overt refusal. This was the culminati on of a process of quasi-seduction that
entrapped her in deeply compromising situ ations in which he fondled her in the
marital bed and enswathed he r in lewd expressions of his desires. To suggest
that the situation involved physical force is to misunderstand its quintessentially
emotional dynamic.
[230] In cross-examination the compla inant explained that on entering the
dressing room she wa s shocked to see him in the state she described (pants
down, penis engorged, putting on a condom): ‘I got a fright, I didn’t know what
to do. I just stood still there’ ( ek het geskrik, ek het nie geweet wat om te doen.
Ek het net daar vas gestaan ). She wanted to turn around and walk out, but he
prevented her (toe keer hy my). He obstructed her exit and said, ‘Don’t go, take a
look here’ ( hy het my vasgekeer en vir my gesê ek moenie weggaan nie, kyk
hierso).
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[231] At this point she performed a de monstration in the witness stand of how
he grasped her. By omission of coun sel and the magistrate this was not
described for the record. It was at al l events clear that no physical force was
involved: for she explained that she me ant ‘grasp, because I should now look [at
the condom]’ ( om te vat, want ek moet nou kyk ). She agreed with the cross-
examiner that he took her by the arm an d prevented her from leaving: ‘Yes, he
took me so that I couldn't go. I must tu rn around and look at him, yes.’ Still no
physical force, but a physical interventi on aimed at securing an opportunity to
persuade her to stay: a seducer restraining his target.
[232] When he now told her again that he wanted to ‘steek’ her, she said, No, I
don’t want to; and then he urged her, ‘But you do want to’. After she said, No, I
don’t want to and I'm scared, he laid her down, in a manner she was still
demonstrating in the witne ss stand, and which her verb al testimony made clear
was gentle (hy het sag gewerk dat ek nie hard val nie). She tried to keep her legs
closed and said to him, No, don’t do it. I don’t want you to do it. He
nevertheless penetrated her, thus completing the crime of rape.
[233] She reiterated that it was the a ppellant who prevented her from leaving,
and that he held her by the hand. But she explained unambiguously: ‘Not forced,
but just so that I should stay with him’ ( nie geforseer nie, maar net dat ek by
hom moet bly). When asked why she didn’t walk away at the outset, she stated ‘I
am under his control, he held me fast. There is no chance for me to be able to get
away’ (ek is onder sy beheer, hy het my vasgehou. daar is nie vir my ‘n kans dat
ek kan wegkom nie ). This suggests more physical coercion – but she
98
immediately clarified that in fact she made no attempt to get away ( het u
inderdaad fisies probeer om weg te kom? – nee ). This interchange then
followed:
‘I ask the question again, did you physically try to get away – I tried, yes, but I couldn't.
Now you're saying you did? – Tried, yes, but Johan Marx brought me back, held me back,
I couldn't.
Now, good. – As in running away, no, but to get away from him, yes. To get away from
his distance, yes. But to run away I could not, because he was by my side.
Miss, let us not put too fine a line on it. Did you try to get out of that room? – No.
Why not? – I just tried to get away from him at first.
Why did you not try to get away out of that room? – Because it was impossible for me to
get out of his clutches.
Good. In other words he held you and prevented you from leaving the room? Is that what
you are saying? By holding you by the hand? – Yes.’
[234] The derisive tone of the cros s-examiner, who had established to his
satisfaction that no actual force – no p hysical overpowering – had been used, is
plain (‘By holding you by the hand?’). To read this evidence as though it relates
a physical overpowering is in my view to mistake the essence of the violation
that ensued. This emerged conclusively in later cross-examination, when the
complainant was asked whether the inte rcourse of 31 March 1998 was forcible
(gewelddadig). Encapsulating all the nuances that her previous testimony had
sought to convey, she replied, In a way, yes ( op ‘n manier, ja ). She was then
asked in what way:
99
‘The way he … I can always remember his eyes how he looked at me. The movements he
made were a movement of, I want you, I have you, I take you, yes, that for me was forcible.
The way in which he did it, he didn’t care about how it felt for me, whether it was sore or
uncomfortable, he wanted to do it.’
[235] The cross-examiner’s suggestive i nvitation to claim th at force was used
gave her ample opportunity, if she be lieved that any element of physical
coercion had been present, to say so. Yet she spoke only of her attacker’s eyes
and of his unfeeling manner. This is the essence of her account. To seek in it
physical coercion is to misunderstand it, and hence to interpret her evidence in
quite the wrong setting.
[236] It is in my view clear from her evidence as a whole that the complainant
testified that no physical force was involved ( nie geforseer nie ). The ‘clutches’
(kloue) she referred to were emotional rather than physical, and the power
exercised over her in the room was that of an adult predator who had entrapped
her, not by force, but by complicity and guilt and collusive participation. This
culminated, even as she remained physically free to depart, when he over-rode
her clear and repeated No without the need to employ physical force at all.
[237] It surely needs no argument that our capacity for evidentiary appreciation
should embrace situations that involve a sexual advance made upon a victim
who may already be in a position of d eep sexual, emotional and even physical
compromise when sex is proposed. Such a position of compro mise may derive
from a pre-existing consensual or se mi-consensual interaction with the
perpetrator. ‘Date rape’ is the best- known instance: the parties may have seen
100
each other socially, and even have en gaged extensively in intimate physical
contact (petting). When one party refuses to ‘go all the way’, nothing
approaching violence or physical coercion may be involved, and to seek it may
be gravely mistaken. The emotional an d physical complexities are less crass,
and demand a proportionate response from the fact-finder.
[238] The erroneous inference that the complainant claimed that physical force
was used in her rape shows in my resp ectful view an attempt to apply the wrong
conceptual model (or ‘parad igm’) to the violation this case involves. What is
more, it highlights an approach to the complainant’s evidence that in my view
does not justly appreciate the situation it evoked.
[239] This emerges also from Streicher JA’s conclusion that the complainant’s
evidence about whether she initially t hought that she had been raped is
contradictory. This, he considers, point s to the improbability of her complaint.
He appears to regard her evidence a bout whether she considered that the
interaction between her and the appellant constituted a ‘relationship’ in a similar
light.
[240] With respect, I cannot agree with th is approach. The complainant testified
in chief that, after her initial refusal to consent to intercourse, later occasions of
intercourse ‘just happened’, that is, without objection from her ( dit het net
gebeur). The appellant intimated to her that they were in a relationship ( dit is ‘n
verhouding wat tussen hom en my is ), and that it was right to have intercourse
(dit is reg om dit te doen ). She obviously felt uneasy about this construction ( ek
het baie daarteen gestry), but without avail.
101
[241] Later she told her aunt Mrs van Rooyen ‘the whole situation’, and Mrs
van Rooyen told her that it was not a relationship but sexual molestation and
rape. She testified that sh e also told Dr van Rooy wh at had happened, and that
he ‘also’ (ook) told her that it was sexual molestation and rape. When asked why
she did not tell anyone in the light of this knowledge , she explained:
‘Because I know after a time that it was happening … I could no longer say No to Johan
Marx. Rape is when you say No. That happened the first few times. I was still uncertain and
scared, because if I report it to the police, then my parents get to know of it. And I wasn’t
ready to tell them …’
[242] In cross-examination she suggest ed that Dr van Rooy was the person who
told her ‘for the first time’ that the ‘verhouding’ was not a relationship but in
fact (wel) sexual molestation and rape. But this clearly arose from a confusion
on her part, since she claimed that Dr va n Rooy told her this before she wrote
her school-leaving examination (in November 1999). She therefore clarified that
her aunt had ‘also’ told he r that it was ‘molestation or in fact if he had sexual
intercourse with me and I said No, then it is rape’. She explained that she told
Mrs van Rooyen that it was a ‘relationship’ after which her aunt asked her about
‘everything that happened’. She related ‘everything’ to her.
[243] When asked why she did not te ll the psychologists and psychiatrists
treating her in 2000 what her aunt had said, she explained –
‘For me it was a relationship. I did not know what rape or molestation is, what it entails,
how far you may and may not go before it is molestation. For me it was, Johan Marx told me
ten thousand times, “Just remember, this is a relationship between me and you this.”’
102
[244] Taxed again about why despite what her aunt had told her she did not
inform Dr Swart and Dr Marais, she c onfirmed that she continued to have
ambiguities or uncertainties ( ek het nog onduidelikhede gehad ): ‘For me, it was
this, Johan Marx said this is a relationshi p, doesn’t matter who says what, it’s
going to count against you.’ She was then asked whether before speaking to her
aunt in November 1999 sh e realised that what had occurred was sexual
molestation and rape. She replied that she hadn't thought of it that way:
‘To me it had still been said it was a relationship, it is not rape. It is a relationship between
me and Johan Marx. And what he said to me is all that stuck in my head. For two and a half
years he tried to imprint this in my head to understand. I knew that rape is when someone …
tries to have sexual intercourse with you when you say No. But as he made me to understand,
it was a relationship.’
[245] Persisting, the cross-examiner asked her whether she didn’t realise before
her school-leaving examination that what happened was sexua l molestation and
rape. She replied, ‘I knew that it was rape and molest ation, but because later I
couldn't say No any more, I thought that I … I shared guilt in it’ ( ek het skuld
daaraan). She went on to clarify that it was he r aunt who explained that the fact
that after a time sh e just submitted ( ten spyte van die feit dat ek wel na die tyd
net ingegee het) did not invalidate the case agains t the appellant. She went on to
explain:
‘The first time he did it without my saying Yes to him. And that is where I was confused.
The first few times I said No, but later I couldn't any more. It just happened so fast. He … I
thought, but if one time Yes … not Yes, but if it happened one time and I just allowed it, what
of the first time.’
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[246] Later the cross-examiner return ed to the ‘verhouding’ issue. The
complainant testified that the appella nt imprinted the idea that it was a
‘relationship’ so into her head that she believed him. After the complainant’s
examination and re-examination, the magi strate asked whether she had not been
attracted to the appellant, esp ecially in the light of the fact that he told her that
there was a relationship. She replied, ‘No, I knew we did not have a relationship
and I was also not attracted to him, no’.
From this it seems evident that the complainant –
a. knew that her refusal to consent to in tercourse with the appellant entailed
the crime of rape;
b. later did not withhold consent;
c. thought that the fact that she later consented to sex negatived her initial
refusal;
d. was told by the complainant that they were in a relationship, and that their
sexual contact was right;
e. resisted his explanation, and felt gu ilty and angry with him within their
‘relationship’;
f. felt guilt, self-blame and fear about the situation she was in;
g. thus both accepted and did not accept that they were in fact in a
relationship;
h. told her aunt ‘everything’ that had happened, including the non-
consensual nature of the initial acts;
i. similarly told Dr van Rooy everything;
104
j. was assured by both of them that, despite being told by the appellant that
they were in a ‘relationship’ that rendered the sexual acts ‘right’, what had
happened was sexual molestation and rape;
k. regarded this as a revelation in view of confusion in her views and
insights and feelings;
l. despite these assurances, in particular those of her aunt, still felt intense
guilt, anxiety and uncertainty about th e moral and legal ch aracter of what
had happened, and the cons equences of her exposing it, until she was at
last able to charge the appellant in October 2000.
[247] To fault this account is in my view to mistake complexity for
contradiction, and nuance for incoherence. The co mplainant’s account was
nuanced and intricate. Yet it was coherent . It is to her cred it that she presented
this situation in its full complexity. Sh e explained with frankness her conflicting
feelings and perceptions about what had happened to her, perceptions that were
clouded by the appellant’s deliberately self-interested construction of events,
and by his menacing attitude toward her ow n credibility and the interests of her
family. And it should not be necessary to add: they after all were the feelings
and perceptions of a vulnerable and clearly distressed adolescent.
[248] And it is not hard to understand why she did not thoroughly digest that
she had been molested and raped, and th at what she had with the appellant was
not a ‘relationship’: indecent assaults an d rapes are perpetrated by strangers in
dark alleyways, and not in a middle-class family home by a man whom you trust
105
and need and regard as a father-figure, and who is married to a woman you love
and is the father of children whom you love.
[249] The suggestion that the complainant can be expected to have had clarity
on her feelings and perceptions regarding her interaction with the appellant, in
the months after they occurred, seems to me to overlook the implications of the
medically attested psychological cris es the complainant experienced during
1999/2000. These culminated in more than one hospitalisation for psychiatric
treatment. The complainant testified that it was her search for mental health that
impelled her to account fully and truthful ly for what had happened between her
and the appellant, and it was only after she embarked on that path that she
attained stability.
[250] Streicher JA considers that th e mental trauma the complainant
experienced during 1999 and 2000 affords no corroboration for her account. I do
not agree. Asked in his ev idence in chief about the complainant presentation to
him as a patient, Dr van Rooy’s response was that there is ‘without doubt’ a
direct connection between the development of post-traumatic stress symptoms in
children [the record erroneously has ‘en’] who have been sexually molested, and
development of anxiety and depressi on. He added that there ‘could’ ( kon) have
been various other causes, but that molestation ‘could surely’ (kon sekerlik) have
been a factor in the comp lainant’s condition. In answer to later questions from
the magistrate he stated that it would be wrong to attribute ‘all her symptoms’ to
(for instance) the molestation: ‘There are surely many ot her factors that
contribute to them’, he said.
106
[251] The evidence of Dr van Rooy esta blishes that while the complainant’s
psychological distress in 1999/2000 should not be attributed solely to sexual
molestation, it is compatible with its occurrence. That corroborates the
complainant’s assertion, which the magi strate and the High Court in my view
rightly accepted, that the interaction with the appellant was the root cause of her
panic attacks and anxiety in that period.
[252] Streicher JA finds it di fficult to believe that in view of what had befallen
the complainant (haar wedervaringe) she could in September 2000 still have
believed that there had been a relationship with the appellant. But this also omits
to take into account the conflicting pe rceptions and uncertainties regarding the
‘relationship’ that the complainant’s evidence portrayed, as well as the medical
evidence that she was at the time in a parlous psychological condition. Her prior
conduct exhibited a needful naiveté that le ft her vulnerable to exploitation at the
hands of the appellant, and, even as she managed to start to break free from him,
in a state of continuing distress and c onfusion. To count against her in the
reckoning the nuances and complexities of her perceptions during this process
seems to me inappropriate.
[253] At the heart of the case lies the fact that according to her own testimony
the complainant was trapped, and felt he rself trapped, in a quasi-relationship
with the appellant – one into which hi s own invasive condu ct manipulated her
and to which her vulnerabi lity as a troubled teenager left her susceptible. Two
questions arise from this, one for the pr osecution, and one for the defence. Why
did she continue to go back to the Marx household, despite the unwanted
107
conduct of the appellant? And why would she falsely testify that she refused
consent to the initial sexual contact if she in fact consented? I turn to the second
question after considering the significance of the appellant’s lying evidence.
The complainant’s repeated return to the Marx household
[254] The complainant testified that sh e was drawn there by her bond with Mrs
Marx and the children, and by her feelin gs of guilt toward her. Judged with
clinical dispassion, this was neither logical nor wise, and Streicher JA
accordingly finds it difficult to accept that it was not clear to her that her
presence in the home was likely to cont ribute to Mrs Marx’s problems, and
expresses difficulty in understanding how, in the face of logic and good sense, a
troubled and needful teenager could continue in a fam ilial association that was
doing neither her nor the family any good. Nugent JA too expresses
considerable difficulty in accepting the complainant’s account on this issue. I
cannot agree.
[255] The complainant testified that the appellant repeatedly assured her that
they were in a relationship. Her acceptan ce of this was reluctant and resentful,
but it is clear from her evidence that hi s repeated assurances and blandishments
did have a persuasive eff ect on her thinking and fee lings. She felt abused and
misused, but – as she testifie d – she also eventually su bmitted without protest to
his sexual attentions. This doubtless shows an adolescent lack of wisdom, but it
is no basis for disbelieving her testimony that she refused at first.
[256] What she had with the appella nt was no doubt, in Vladimir Nabokov’s
phrase ‘a poor simulacrum of love’; but a simulacrum for a time it was; and in
108
the state of confusion and distress and needfulness her testimony depicted, the
Marx household and her rela tionship with Mrs Marx amounted, as she testified,
to something to return to. That she also knew that what was happening was
degrading and wrong and dangerous (a nd, as she also stated, not a true
relationship – at leas t not in any respectable, mutu ally respectful or honourable
sense) is clear. It is not for us to judge these motive forces unwise, or to inimise
them in our evidentiary assessment.
Should the appellant’s false testimony add to the inference of guilt?
[257] Streicher JA and Nugent JA conclude that the fact that the appellant lied
about the extent of the sexual interacti on with the complainan t, while a factor,
does not weigh strongly against him in dete rmining his guilt. Both consider that
the appellant could have had other reas ons for lying about the nature of the
sexual relationship, other than that it started in non-consensually invasive
conduct, and that his lying evidence therefore does not strengthen the state case.
[258] I do not share this view. Streicher JA suggests, first, that admitting to the
under-age groping, before the complainan t turned sixteen, co uld have rendered
the appellant liable to conviction on the statutory offence of indecent assault,
even had she consented. This has prove d to be the case, but there is no
suggestion in the evidence that the appella nt knew that such an offence existed,
nor did the state make any attempt to rely on it (though a competent verdict)
until after this appeal, when the court itself raised the question. The appellant
had no reason to think that he was at risk: the compla inant’s evidence
109
established only that he thought that un der-age intercourse could render him
liable to prosecution.
[259] Streicher JA also suggests that for the appellant to admit to a sustained
sexual relationship with the youthful complainant would put him in a poor light
with his wife, his children and the comm unity even if she had consented. This
seems implausible. The appellant’s pl ea explanation formally admitted to
consensual groping, and consensual interc ourse, with a schoolgirl . It is hard to
see why delicacy of social standing or family feeling should induce him to deny
more extensive occurrence of both, if indeed they occurred consensually.
[260] My colleagues’ suggestion that there are real possibilities for the appellant
to lie, other than his guilt, must also meet logic. Their approach suggests that the
appellant would run the risk of being un justly convicted of sexual assault and
rape rather than admit to a more ex tensive – albeit wholly consensual –
relationship. This is neither probable nor plausible.
[261] More compelling is the inference that the appellant’s reason for denying
the more extensive relationship was that, embedded at its start, was the poison of
the crimes to which the complainant at tested. He could not admit to the full
truth, because the full truth was that he overbore the complainant’s initial
refusal. The appellant lied about the exte nt of the sexual relationship because he
knew that admitting its duration woul d support the inference that the
complainant had not given her consent at its start.
[262] Significant here is that his plea e xplanation placed both consensual events
in the latter half of 1999 – when the comp lainant was as old as possible. That is
110
a telling distortion. The younge r the complainant, the stronger the inference that
she did not consent, and could not have consented. His lie must therefore
contribute to the inference of guilt.
What motive could the complainant have had for falsely incriminating the
appellant?
[263] Finally, there is the question of the complainant’s possible motive for
falsely incriminating the appellant. No adequate motive was suggested or ever
put to her. The regional magistrate and the High Court in my view rightly found
that there was none.
[264] Nugent JA considers it unnecessary to explore th is question. Streicher JA
questions the finding of the courts below that since there was no relationship the
complainant could not have had any jealous motive against the appellant. He
finds that the complainant considered that there was a relationship, and that the
evidence reveals indications of possible jealousy on her part as a motive for
falsely testifying against the appellant. He adds that even if there were no true
relationship between the appellant and the complainant – as both the regional
magistrate and the High Court found – th e fact that the appellant falsely
represented to her that there was provides a motive – contrary to the magistrate’s
approach – for embittered chagrin agai nst him. Neither suggestion in my view
withstands scrutiny.
[265] While neither of my colleagues fi nds that the complainant had a motive
falsely to incriminate the appellant, in my view the absence of any suggested
motive is itself significant to the resolution of the case. Regarding the possibility
111
of jealousy, Streicher JA alludes to th e complainant’s testimony regarding her
reaction when the appellant fondled his wife. On one such occasion, on which
the complainant was extensively cross-ex amined, the appellant left the door to
the marital bedroom open after the complain ant rebuffed him, so that, lying in
bed next door with the children, she c ould hear their love-making. The next
morning he told her that he had done so deliberately for her to hear.
[266] But it is hard to see why jealousy of any sort, or jealousy arising from the
complainant’s exposure to the coupl e’s love-making, should provide
substantiation for a theory of false in crimination. The complainant was candid
about the extent to which she regarded he rself as involved in a relationship with
the appellant. She volunteered the ope n-bedroom-door incident during her
evidence in chief to illustrate the appe llant’s petulant and manipulative conduct
during the period when she believed that there was in fact a relationship between
them. She explained during cross-examination that –
‘I just felt that [the love-making] was going to be a personal thing between him and his
wife. And for me at that stage, just because I wouldn't do for him what he said and he does it
and his wife makes sounds, I think that would upset anyone if they were to hear it. And I
knew that he was doing it to get me back because I resisted him. And, yes, it made me
unhappy and made me feel uncomfortable. I was in a room just next to them, I heard it all. For
any person it would not be pleasant and uncomfortable.’
[267] This is hard to fault. Jealousy as a possible motive must in my view
founder on the complainant’s candour. Ther e is nothing apart from what she
admitted to in her evidence. Jealousy is too flimsy to account for false charges –
112
unless, of course, one rega rds women as incipiently in clined to destructive
jealous malice, and I do not believe my colleague suggests this.
[268] The alternative – chag rin because ‘you misled me about a relationship’ –
similarly fails to withstand scrutiny. Such chagrin would provide a motive for
denouncing the appellant to his wife, to hi s community, to his church or to his
friends, but not to accuse him falsely of ra pe. It is insufficient to account for the
immensely more momentous step, whic h the complainant knew would damage
the husband of a woman, and the father of children, to whom she convincingly
expressed deep attachment.
[269] I would point out that in any even t no motive for false incrimination was
ever put to the complainant during he r evidence. She was asked in connection
with the open-door episode wh ether it made her jealous , but not regarding false
charges. All that was put to her, at th e end of a particularly exhaustive cross-
examination, was that sh e was filled with (unspe cified) hatred toward the
complainant, and wanted to see him go down.
[270] The complainant, as already em phasised more than once, was cross-
examined over two days by experience d senior counsel. He did not propose
jealousy or embittered chagrin. The complainant therefore had no opportunity to
deal with them. The motives were not ev en mentioned in argument on behalf of
the appellant. It would in my view be un fair and inappropriate to use them now
as a basis for discrediting the complainant’s evidence.
[271] In general, fairness and the cons titutional entitlement to dignity in my
view require that, where an accused in a sexual assault case is adequately
113
defended, if the possibility of malicious motive is to fe ature in the resolution of
the issues, that motive should be canvass ed in the complain ant’s evidence. The
absence of any suggested or plausible motive here must in my view contribute to
the weight of the state’s evidence in this case. We have no idea, though we may
imagine, how the complainant would have responded if her cr oss-examiner had
accused her of figmenting the charges against the a ppellant because she was
jealous of his wife – a woman to whom she was deeply attached – or out of
chagrin at being misled and sexually a bused by the father of the children she
cared for and loved.
[272] Though my colleagues do not find that the complainant in fact had a
malicious motive, past judgments of this court have ranged fr eely and widely in
search of possible motives for complainan ts to lay false charges against their
alleged sexual attackers. An instance is S v F 1989 (3) SA 847 (A). S v F and the
authorities it invoked preceded the abolition of the cautionary rule in rape cases
(S v Jackson 1998 (1) SACR 470 (SCA)). The method of operation those cases
employed in my view violates the dignity of complainants and is no longer
acceptable. Accused persons are entitle d to be acquitted when there is
reasonable doubt about their guilt. That does not make it necessary or
permissible for motives to be freely imputed to sexual offence complainants at
appellate level when these were not fa irly and properly explored in their
testimony. To permit this would threaten return to the indefensible days when
complainants were treated as inherently unr eliable, inherently inclined to false
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incrimination, and inherently disposed to destructive jealousy in relation to their
consensual male sexual partners.
[273] A company director in a commercia l setting who seeks to establish that a
gain was of a capital nature, rather than income, is spared th e indignity of such
ex post facto imputations of and free -ranging speculations about motive. The
President of the country, no less than ot her witnesses, is similarly spared: see
President of the Republic of South Afr ica v South African Rugby Football Union
2000 (1) SA 1 (CC) paras 72-125. Where the accused is ade quately defended,
complainants in sexual assault cases should be entitled to no less.
[274] The magistrate and the High Court were for these reasons correct to
conclude that the absence of motive to accuse the appellant falsely of crimes
added weight to the conclusion that the complainant’s testimony was true.
[275] The appeal against both conviction and sentence should in my view be
dismissed.
___________________
E CAMERON
JUDGE OF APPEAL
NUGENT JA
[276] I have had the bene fit of reading the judgm ents of my colleagues
Streicher and Cameron in draft form. I ag ree with the orders that are proposed
by Streicher JA for the reasons that follow.
115
[277] The process of examination and cros s examination in a court of law is on
occasions a blunt instrument for revealing the truth, and that is particularly so
where, as in this case, the evidence concerns matters th at might be emotionally
and psychologically complex and nuanced. But then it is common for the full
truth not to emerge in the course of a criminal trial, which has the limited
function of determining whether there is sufficient and adequate evidence to
establish beyond reasonable doubt that the accused pers on committed an
offence. In the absence of such proof in relation to each element of the offence
the accused person is entitled to be acquitted albeit that the full truth might not
have emerged. That applies no matter the nature of the offence.
[278] The rejection of the appellant ’s evidence – and in my view it was
correctly rejected – leav es us with only the comp lainant’s account of what
occurred during the course of a secret relationship between the complainant and
the appellant that commenced when th e complainant was not yet sixteen years
old and endured for over two years. I agr ee with my colleague Cameron that it
would not be remarkable if the evid ence of a young person who was entrapped
in a sexually exploitative relationship reflected ambiguity, ambivalence, and
confusion, for ambiguity, ambivalence and confusion, and even unwarranted
guilt and shame, will often be inherent in the experience itself, and that must be
borne in mind when assessing the eviden ce. But one must also steer clear of
imprinting upon the evidence a behavioural stereotype or conceptual model or
paradigm assembled from the experiences of others, for each relationship will
have its unique participants whose expe riences might or might not coincide.
116
Where I disagree with him is on the fact s of the present cas e as they emerge
from the evidence.
[279] The effect of the appellant’s plea – which was an almost complete denial
of the complainant’s account of what occurred – was to put the state to the proof
of all the elements of the alleged offe nces and that included the absence of
consent. (The admissions made by the appe llant were only indirectly relevant to
the discharge of that onus.) That onus did not shift during the course of the trial.
[280] The trial court, and the court a quo, weighed the evidence of the
complainant against that of the appellant , rejected all the appellant’s evidence,
and accepted all the evidence of the co mplainant as if that was the natural
corollary.
[281] I have no doubt that the appellan t’s evidence was false in all material
respects and was correctly rejected. But it does not follow from the rejection of
the appellant’s evidence that all the ev idence of the complainant is necessarily
reliable and true. Evidence that traverses numerous issues, as the evidence did in
this case, might often be unr eliable or untrue only in parts. What is required is
not simply a comparison of the competing evidence but also an assessment of
the veracity and reliability of the evid ence in relation to each element of the
offence. That applies even where the evidence on those issues stands
unchallenged by contradicting evidence, for a criminal court has a particular
duty to avoid injustice, which is en capsulated in the following well-known
extract from the judgment of this court in R v Hepworth 1928 AD 265 at 277:
117
‘A criminal trial is not a game where one side is entitled to claim the benefit of any omission
or mistake made by the other side, and a judge’s position in a criminal trial is not merely that
of an umpire to see that the rules of the game are observed by both sides. A judge is an
administrator of justice, he is not merely a fi gurehead, he has not only to direct and control
the proceedings according to recognised procedure but to see that justice is done.’
[282] It is clear from the judgments of both the courts below that, having
weighed the appellant’s evidence against th at of the complainant and rejected
that of the appellant, they assumed w ithout more that the evidence of the
complainant must necessarily all be true. For in neither judgment is there any
assessment of the complain ant’s evidence once isolated from the appellant’s
denials to determine whether it was true a nd reliable in all mate rial respects and
in particular in relation to the absence of consent. In that respect, in my view,
they erred.
[283] I do not think we ought simply to defer to the trial court’s findings
notwithstanding the care with which th ey were arrived at . This court has
cautioned on more than one occasion, most recently in Medscheme Holdings
(Pty) Ltd v Bhamjee,4 against according undue weight to the advantages that are
said to be enjoyed by a trial court, and has said that the demeanor of a witness is
no substitute for evaluating the content of the evidence, taking into account the
wider probabilities. 5 (The trial court’s favourable impression of the appellant,
notwithstanding that his ev idence was almost entirely false, underscores the
point.) Moreover, it is clear from the trial court’s judg ment in the present case
4 Unreported judgment delivered on 27 May 2005 under Case No. 214/04.
5 Body Corporate of Dumbarton Oaks v Faiga 1999 (1) SA 975 (SCA) 979I; Santam Bpk v Biddulph
2004 (5) SA 586 (SCA) para 16; and in a criminal context S v V 2000 (1) SACR 453 (SCA) 455f-h.
118
that, if demeanor played any role at all in its assessment , the role that it played
was negligible. Apart from observing th at there was nothing exceptional in the
demeanor of either the appellant or th e complainant the trial court’s assessment
rested entirely on the content of thei r evidence, all of which appears from the
record and is equally capable of assessmen t by this court. But in any event there
is no warrant for deferring to the trial court’s findings on an issue that it failed to
enquire into at all.
[284] I have no reason to doubt that the sexual acts described by the
complainant indeed occurred and in that respect I agree with the trial court and
the court a quo that the state discharged its onus notwithstanding the appellant’s
denials. But it was also for the state to prove, beyond reasonable doubt, that the
acts that occurred after the accused was sixteen years old occurred without her
consent, for that is an element of bot h offences. Although th e appellant did not
contradict the complainant’s evidence on that issue (nor could he, in view of his
denial that the acts were committed at al l) that is not decisive. As pointed out by
Howie P in this court in S v York 2002 (1) SACR 111 (SCA) para 19:
‘It is always, of course, for the prosecution to prove the absence of consent. This entails that
even if the defence, as here, is that no intercourse took place, the court must, in the
adjudicative process, be alive to the possibility that there might have been consent
nonetheless.’
The learned judge went on to emphasise, nonetheless
‘… that without an evidential basis such a possibility would be no more than speculative and
one would be free to disregard it in coming to one’s eventual conclusion. And it need hardly
119
be said that an accuser’s failure to allege consent will be weighed in the scales when
considering whether the postulated possibility is reasonable or not.’
[285] It does not follow from the fact that the appellant lied about the
occurrence of the sexual acts that they must have been non-consensual. While
the falsity of the appellant’s evidence, and the fact that he did not contradict the
complainant’s evidence on that score, is a factor to be borne in mind when
weighing the evidence, it ought not to be elev ated beyond its due. It is the state,
and not the appellant, who bears the onus, and it ought not to be inadvertently
reversed. Various reasons come to mind in the present case, some of which have
been averted to by my colleague Streic her, why the appellant might have lied
about the occurrence of th e acts even if they were consensual. Not least is the
possibility that at the time the appellant instructed his advisers he was still under
the impression that to admit the occurrence of the events would not have availed
him even if they were c onsensual. For it appears from the complainant’s
evidence that throughout the relationship both the appellant and the complainant
believed that the legal age for consent to sexual intercourse was eighteen years.
(Even after the complainant had turned sixteen the appellant often said to her
that if they were caught having sexual in tercourse he would be ‘state fodder’.)
Seen in that context it is significant that the only act of sexual intercourse to
which he admitted occurred on the comp lainant’s eighteenth birthday. And
having made that limited admission it is not difficult imagine why he would also
feel constrained to make only a limited ad mission in relation to the conduct that
preceded it. But it is in any event not n ecessary to establish what the appellant’s
120
motive was for lying, nor what motive the complainant might have had for
falsely implicating him. Where real pos sibilities present them selves that are not
consistent only with the appellant’s guilt it would be dangerous to draw any
inferences from those facts alone.
[286] The conviction for rape was founded upon the events that occurred on 31
March 1998. The complainant did not pur port to suggest that she was overborne
by the appellant’s emotional grip into which she had be come entrapped by
complicity and guilt and collusion. Th e complainant’s explanation for what
occurred was that the appe llant physically overbore her unwillingness to have
sexual intercourse. She said that after the appellant arrested her intended
departure by catching at her arm he physically pressed her to the floor,
physically overcame her attempts to resi st her clothing being pulled down, and
then entrapped her by the physical power of his body while sexual intercourse
occurred. The compla inant’s account of how she was physically overcome by
the appellant was inconsistent and uncon vincing but those are not grounds for
attributing the alleged overcoming of her will to other, non-physical, means that
were not attested to by the complainant. It suggests rather that the complainant’s
will might not have been overborne at a ll and that her evidence in that regard
might not be true.
[287] In my view there are indeed impr obabilities in the complainant’s account
of how she came to be in the bathroom with the appellant in the first place,
many of which are referred to by my colleague Streiche r, and in her account of
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how her unwillingness was overborne by th e appellant, but there are two further
aspects of the complainant’s evidence that trouble me in particular.
[288] I do not think that it is necessarily significant th at the complainant failed
to report what had occurred. If the co mplainant was indeed entrapped in a non-
consensual quasi-familial relationship it is quite possible th at she might have
been inhibited from disclosing it by f eelings of complicity, shame and guilt,
even if they were unwarranted. But sh e would be even more inhibited from
disclosing it if she was in fact complicit and wa s thereby betraying the
friendship and affection of the appellant’s wife. Inferences from her silence are
thus capable of being drawn in either di rection and I consider her silence to be
neutral in the assessment of the evidence.
[289] But the complainant ultimately br oke her silence, in about November
1999 when she talked to her aunt, and th ere would then have been no reason to
withhold the truth of what had occurred. The compla inant was prompted to
break her silence by the fear that sh e might be pregnant, which caused her
considerable distress, as well it would have done, bearing in mind that she could
not confide in her parents, nor could sh e expect any support from the appellant,
who had told her on more than one occasion during the course of the
relationship that if ever she became pr egnant she was to pass the sexual liaison
off on someone else. At first the complain ant sought assistance from her aunt on
the basis that it was a friend who thought she might be pregnant, but then she
confessed that she was referring to hersel f. She related what then occurred as
follows:
122
‘… Toe sê ek vir haar dit is ʼn getroude man. Ek het vir haar gesê dit is ʼn verhouding. Toe vra
sy vir my alles wat gebeur het. Ek het vir haar gesê wat gebeur het, hoe dit gebeur het en dat
ek vermoed ek is swanger. Dat ek vermoed ek is swanger, ek weet nie. Ek is bang, ek weet
nie wat om te doen nie. Toe sê sy vir my, “Wel, die eerste ding wat ons gaan doen, ons koop
môre ʼn swangerskaptoets en ons kyk of jy swanger is en dan neem ons dit van daar af
verder.”.
Goed. U het, met ander woorde, vir haar gesê ʼn getroude man het met u gemeenskap gehad, u
is bekommerd u is swanger? -- Ja.
En wat het u haar gesê oor ʼn verhouding? -- Ek het vir haar gesê die man sê dit is ʼn n
verhouding tussen my en hom, maar ek het ook haar verduidelik hoe dit gebeur het, want sy
wou geweet het hoe en waar het ek ja gesê. Toe sê ek vir haar ek het vir hom die eerste keer
gesê, nee. Later was dit so dat ek nie meer teen hom kon stry en baklei nie, hy is ʼn groot man
teen my, ek kan nie teen hom stry en baklei nie. En later het dit net gebeur. Toe sê sy vir my,
“Wel, Marlese, die heel eerste keer wat hy dit gedoen het en jy het vir hom nee gesê, was dit
verkragting, want jy het nie toestemming gegee nie.” En selfs die feit dat hy aan my vat is
seksuele molestering.’
[290] As pointed out by my colleague Str eicher, the complainant’s evidence that
she told her aunt that she had said ‘no’ is not corroborated by the evidence of her
aunt. While a direct question from the prosecutor on that point might indeed
have been impermissibly leading, as pointed out by my colleague Cameron, I do
not see how that serves to redress the absence of the evidence. It was also not
incumbent upon counsel for the defendant to probe gaps that might have been
left in the state’s eviden ce, even if they were left only by uncertainty or
ambiguity, for the onus rested throughout upon the state. I have little doubt that
the appellant’s counsel was acutely awar e of that and I se e no grounds for
123
inferring that he took for granted that th e complainant reported to her aunt that
she had said ‘no’. I think it strains the evidence unduly to suggest that that was
implicit in the evidence of Ms van Rooye n. On the contrary, in my view her
evidence is not even ambiguous on that is sue, and instead points strongly in the
other direction. If Ms van Rooyen had been told by the complainant that she had
not consented Ms van Rooyen would surely have told the complainant that what
had occurred constituted rape. Instead what she told the complainant was only
that it was wrong because the complainan t was a minor, as appears from the
extract from her evidence that is quoted by my colleague Streicher but it bears
repeating:
‘Goed. Wat het toe gebeur nadat sy aan u die mededelings gemaak het? -- Ek het vir Marlese
vertel wat gebeur het is verkeerd, want sy was minderjarig en dit was ʼn volwasse persoon.’
That evidence, in my view, simply does not open itself to the construction that
Ms van Rooyen was told that sexual intercourse had occurred against the
complainant’s will.
[291] About ten months later the compla inant also disclosed to Dr van Rooy
what had occurred. The clea r inference from his evidence is that she did not tell
Dr van Rooy that she had expressed he r unwillingness but had been overborne
by the appellant. His evidence, in response to questions from the prosecutor, was
as follows:
‘Ja, wat het sy vir u gesê? -- We l, uiteindelik van die inligting wat bekend gemaak is, het sy
gesê dat sy beide betas is en dat daar penetrasie ook plaasgevind het.
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HOF: Dit is nou inligting wat u by haar bekom het? -- wat sy … wat sy aan my geopenbaar
het. En dit het voorgekom voor die ouderdom van 16. Sy kon nie vir my ʼn presisese
ouderdom gee wanneer dit vir die eerste keer [gebeur] het nie. Dit is die aard van die
molestering wat sy beskryf het.’
In cross-examination he de scribed what he recorded in his contemporaneous
notes as follows:
‘Ja. In die eerste sin het ek geskryf, “Seksu eel gemolesteer deur ouer se huivriend”. En dan
die verdere inligting is dat sy wel vir haar tannie , haar pa se stiefbroer se vrou het sy genoem
in Desember 1999 vertel het daarvan en vir haar verloofde twee weke voordat ek haar gesien
het.’
In response to a request to repeat part of that evidence he said the following:
‘Desember 1999 het sy haar tannie, haar pa se stiefbroer se vrou vertel van die beweerde
loestering, en haar verloofde twee weke voor hi erdie evaluasie. Hy het haar nie verwerp nie
het sy genoem. Sy het verwys na ʼn sakevriend van haar pa wat haar seksueel gemolesteer het
en genoem dat die omvang daarvan betasting en penetrasie was en dat dit haar seksuele
verhouding met haar verloofde beinvloed.’
He added that, although he had not recorded it in his contemporaneous notes, he
recalled querying the complainant’s age at the time sexual intercourse occurred,
and his evidence continued as follows:
‘Wat ek in belangstel is dat so u getuig het, het beide die betasting en penetrasie voorgekom
voor die ouderdom 16, dit is soos u dit verstaan het? -- Dit is hoe ek dit verstaan het. Ek het
dit nie op ʼn nota neergeskryf nie, maar dit is wat ek van geheue vir u kan sê.
Goed – Want ek moes op daardie stadium gesê … vir haar net ingelig dat dit basies statutere
verkragting is as iemand onder die oude rdom van 16 seksuele omgang sou hê met ʼn vroulike
persoon.’
125
Ja, korrek. --- Dan sou my situasie anders gewees het en ek sou anders opgetree het as sy
onder die ouderdom van 16 was.
Ek verstaan wat u sê. As ek mag opsom, net seker te maak dat ek reg verstaan wat u sê is, aan
u was gesê daar was penetrasie gewees voor ouderdom 16. U het geweet iemand onder 16, dit
is statutere verkragting as daar seksuele penetr asie was en dit is wat u aan haar gesê het? –
Bevestig.’
[292] I would be most surprised if a psyc hiatrist to whom it was reported that
sexual penetration had occurred without consent would record no more than that
there had been ‘sexual mo lestation’ and I see no fo undation for the suggestion
that he or she would do so . On the contrary, in my view it is most improbable
that Dr van Rooy would have told the co mplainant that she had been ‘statutorily
raped’ if what she had told him disclosed the offence of rape. It is also most
improbable that he would not have expressly noted that fa ct on his file if that is
what he was told, and it is as improbabl e that he would not have remembered
that fact when giving evidence in a tria l on a charge of rape but instead have
remembered only that he had queried the complainant’s age. In my view it is
improbable that Dr van Rooy was told by the complainant that she had not
consented to sexual intercourse but had b een overborne. By itself that also casts
doubt upon whether she said that to her aunt because there was no reason not to
repeat the same account to both her aunt and to Dr van Rooy.
[293] What also app ears from the evidence of Dr van Rooy is that at the time
the complainant disclosed the relationshi p to him (sometime after 13 September
2000 but before 23 October 2000 when she re ported it to the police) she had not
126
yet disclosed it to her pare nts, and had disclosed it to Mornè (to whom she was
then engaged) only a fortnight earlier. (H er evidence was that she disclosed the
relationship to Mornè ‘a few months’ after they me t in about January or
February 2000 and before they became engaged). Sh e said that she had been
reluctant at first to disclose the relationship to Mornè because she feared that she
might lose him if he knew that she had ‘had a relationship with a man who was
almost 40 years old’, as appears from the following extract from her evidence,
part of which I referred to earlier:
‘
Ek het eers nie vir Mornè vertel ni e, want wat sal Mornè van my dink? ʼn Meisie van 18 jaar
wat ʼn verhouding met ʼn amper 40-jarige man het. Ek was bang om vir Mornè te verloor, hy is
ʼn wonderlike mens. Hy aanvaar my vir wat ek is. Ek was bang ek verloor Mornè as ek hom
die waarheid vertel.’
Nothing in her evidence suggests that she was inhibited from disclosing the
relationship to Mornè by the fact that she had not consente d, and there was no
reason for her to fear disclosing that fact.
[294] After she had made her disclosu re to Dr van Rooy, according to the
complainant, she reported to Mornè ‘what the doctor had said’ (which,
according to Dr van Rooyen, was that sh e had been ‘statutorily raped’) and it
was then that Mornè urged her to take the matter further and ultimately she
disclosed the relationship to her parents and reported to the police that she had
been raped. (She made her report to the police on about 23 October 2000.) In my
view it is improbable that the compla inant told Mornè that she had not
consented when she first di sclosed the relationship to him, which, according to
127
what she told Dr van Rooy, must have been not earlier than about the end of
August 2000. If she had done so he would surely have urged her at that stage to
report the matter and he wo uld not have been prompted to do so only when she
told him what Dr van Rooy had said.
[295] It is clear that the complainant di d not disclose the existence of her sexual
relationship with the appellant to anyone but her aunt – a nd then only because
she thought she was pregnant – until she disclosed it to Mornè in about August
2000 and thereafter to Dr van Rooy. That the complainant reported the matter to
nobody until she made these disclosures is not significant in itself for reasons
that I have given. But what is signifi cant is that when she did make those
disclosures it is improbable that she told any of the persons concerned that the
sexual acts had occurred against her will. There was no reason to withhold that
information if that is ind eed what occurred and the improbability of her having
done so casts considerable doubt upon the complainant’s evidence.
[296] There is a further aspect of the complainant’s evidence that also troubles
me. Sexual intercourse first occurred on 31 May 1998 and it occurred for the last
time on the complainant’s eighteenth birthday on 9 October 1999. During the
intervening period of about sixteen m onths sexual intercourse took place on
numerous occasions. The complainant c ould not recall how many times it
occurred but estimated that she had sexu al intercourse with the appellant about
thirteen or fourteen time s in all. According to the complainant she said ‘no’ on
the first six or seven occasions. Thereafte r, according to the complainant, she
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said neither ‘yes’ nor ‘no’ because she felt entrapped by the appellant’s
persistence and merely submitted to what she considered to be inevitable.
[297] Leaving aside the first occasion that sexual intercourse occurred, the
complainant said that on all but three oc casions it took place on the bed in the
appellant’s bedroom. It also took place on one occasion in the bathroom of the
appellant’s house, on one occasion in wh at seems to have been a passageway,
and on one occasion at the house that th e complainant shared with her parents.
On every occasion that it took place at the appellant’s house the appellant’s wife
was away and when it took place at her parents’ house her parents were away.
[298] Thus on numerous occasions the co mplainant found herself alone with the
appellant in his bedroom. How the complainant came to be alone in the bedroom
with the appellant on the occasions that she said ‘no’ (and there is no reason to
think that it was different on the other occasions) was explained in the following
extract from her evidence:
‘Nou, kom ons praat van hierdie sewe gevalle wa ar u sê u nee gesê het. Hoe het u in sy
slaapkamer gekom dat hy dit met u kon doen nou? -- Ons sit daar. As dit … baie keer was dit
hy lê en krieket of wat, sport of wat ook al daar is. Die kinders sal wel miskien ook daar wees.
Hy jaag hulle net uit en ek sit dan daar. En dan sal hy dit doen. Deur oop, alles. Of hy sal my
… ons was altyd in die kamer, iets gedoen of te levisie gekyk of iets en dan sal hy dit net
doen.’
She went on to explain that the children would be outdoors but that she and the
appellant could see when they were approaching.
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[299] The occasion upon which intercou rse occurred in the bathroom was
described by the complainant as follows:
‘Ja, hy het een keer was ek in die badkamer en hy het op die toilet … ek was in die badkamer
en hy het vir my gesê, “Ons doen dit sommer gou hier.” Daar was so ʼn bankie. Hy het my toe
sommer bo-op die bankie getel. Toe sê ek vir hom, “Nee”. En hy het die venster toegetrek en
hy het dit daar bo-op die bankie gedoen met my. Hy het nie omgegee waar hy dit doen nie, hy
het net aan homself gedink.’
[300] Intercourse took place on one occa sion at her parents’ house. According
to the complainant the appellant had telephoned to ask her to baby-sit the
children and, after learning that her pare nts were away, he arrived at the house.
She described what happened:
‘En toe ek by die huis kom … toe hy by die huis kom, toe is ek … toe is hy daar en toe het hy
dit … en toe het hy gemeenskap met my by my ma-hulle se huis ook gehad. Maar dit is al op
daardie stadium wat ek nie meer … nie meer omgegee het wat met my gebeur nie.’
[301] On every occasion that the compla inant was with the appellant in the
bedroom she must have entered the house knowing that the appellant’s wife was
not there, or she must have remained in the house after discovering that the
appellant’s wife was absent or after the a ppellant’s wife had left. She must then
have accompanied the appellant to the bedroom, or she must have sought him
out in the bedroom. Whenever the child ren were present, an d were ushered out
of the bedroom, she remained. On one occasion she made no apparent attempt to
leave the bathroom when the appellant en tered it. On another occasion she must
have admitted the appellant to her pare nts’ house when she was there alone and
then have accompanied him to wherever it was that intercourse occurred. On all
130
those occasions the complainant must have done that well-knowing what was
likely to occur when they were alone together.
[302] If the complainant had indeed been sexually assaulted against her will and
then been raped I have considerable di fficulty accepting that the complainant
would have persistently allowed herself to be alone with the appellant thereafter.
And that she would have voc iferously protested at her father’s attempts to
prevent her from being in his company, which she described as follows:
‘My pa het altyd gesê, “Ek is nie dom nie. Ek is nie meer vandag se kind nie, ek weet”.
Bedoelende hy weet dat u ʼn verhouding … (tussenbeide) -- Hy weet dat Johan Marx het
attensies.
Hy het u nie verbied om daarnatoe te gaan nie? – Hy het, ja.
En het u daarna geluister? – Ek het met hom baie baklei daaroor, want ek het vir hom gesê, ek
gaan nie om na Johan Marx te gaan nie, ek gaan om vir tannie Lettie uit te help. Ek en my pa
het al hoeveel argumente daaroor gehad, want hy het Johan Marx glad nie vertrou nie.’
The complainant’s explanation to her stepfather, and in her evidence, for
continuing to visit the a ppellant’s house was that she wished to maintain her
relationship with the appellant’s wife, but that seems to me to be a tenuous
explanation for her persistent presence wi th the appellant, most often in the
bedroom, when the appellant’s wife was nowhere to be seen, and for her
presence with the appellant in her parents’ house when her parents were away. If
she indeed wanted to maintain a relations hip within the family it required no
special maturity for a girl of sixteen or seventeen to avoid being persistently
alone with the appellant in his bedroom.
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[303] That the complainant persisted in being alone with the appellant, most
often in his bedroom, by itself raises considerable doubt that she was an
unwilling partner to what was occurring, as she alleged, but there is a further
aspect of her evidence in th at regard that also cast s doubt upon its veracity. I
have pointed out that the complainant said that on the first six or seven of the
occasions that she found herself alone with the appellant she again said ‘no’ but
sexual intercourse occurred nonetheless. Yet she still persisted in being alone
with the appellant. I am no t persuaded that the comp lainant said ‘no’ on the
seventh occasion. Nor that she said ‘no’ on the sixth occasion, nor on the earlier
occasions. And if the veracity of her evid ence in that respect is open at least to
doubt, which in my view it is , I do not think it can be relied upon alone to find
that she said ‘no’ on the first occasion.
[304] But we are not called upo n to find that the complainant’s evidence that the
sexual acts occurred without her consent is untrue and t hus to reject it in order
for the appellant to be entitled to be ac quitted. He is entitled to be acquitted if
there is only a reasonable possibility that her evidence on that issue might be
untrue. In my view there is such a reas onable possibility, for the reasons I have
given, with the result that the state faile d to discharge its onus, and the appellant
was entitled to be acquitted on the charges that he faced.
[305] But notwithstanding the reservati ons that I have in relation to the
complainant’s evidence that the sexual act s were not consensual I do not have
similar reservations with re gard to her evidence that they indeed occurred even
taking account the caution to be obser ved before accepting the evidence of a
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single witness. It seems clear that ther e was a long-standing sexual relationship
between the complainant and the appell ant and I see nothing improbable or
inconsistent in the complainant’s account of the acts that occurred in the course
of that relationship and th e time at which the first in cident occurred. On the
contrary, in my view the surrounding ci rcumstances support the conclusions of
the trial court and the court a quo that on that issue th e evidence of the
complainant was true. In those circum stances I agree with my colleague
Streicher, for the reasons he has given, that the evidence establishes that the
appellant contravened s 14(1)(b) of the Sexual Offences Act 23 of 1957, and that
the matter should be remitted to the trial court for the appropriate sentence to be
determined.
___________________
R.W. NUGENT
JUDGE OF APPEAL