Simphiwe Mdekazi's appeal against his life sentence for the kidnapping and rape of a nine-year-old girl has been rejected by the Western Cape High Court.
Image: File
A child rapist who kidnapped his nine-year-old victim will continue serving his life imprisonment sentence after his appeal failed at the Western Cape High Court this week.
Simphiwe Mdekazi was charged with the rape of the young girl and her kidnapping, on or about October 13, 2022, near Khayelitsha.
Mdekazi was convicted on March 27, 2025, in the Khayelitsha Regional Court and subsequently sentenced to life for rape and five years for kidnapping.
Mdekazi was 44 years old at the time, and after being convicted for the crimes, his personal details were ordered to be entered into the sexual offences register.
During the trial, it was revealed that on October 13, 2022, the girl encountered Mdekazi while going to a nearby shop to purchase chips. Mdekazi was familiar with the girl's residence.
“She did not want to go with him, but he took her and put her in a car. She did not know that he was going to take her to his house. It was put to her that Mdekazi took her to his home and went inside the house with her, which she agreed to. There was nobody else at the house. He locked the door and put on loud music. He undressed her and told her that if she told anyone about this, he would kill her, but she did not believe him,” the court judgment detailed.
The man undressed himself and told the minor girl to lie down on a bed before he proceeded to rape her.
According to the court record, the girl complained to him that it hurt and cried, and Mdekazi then stopped before “they then went to sleep, and the next morning, he took her home at about 6am”.
According to the girl's foster mother, who had cared for her since she was three years old, she had known Mdekazi for a long time as he frequently passed her house.
“On the night of October 13, 2022, the complainant went out at about 6pm. When she did not come back, they started searching for her and even went to the police station to report her missing. (The foster mother) locked the house and she and others, including her older children, searched for the (girl).
“Since the night of October 13, 2022, the complainant has changed: ‘… the child’s behaviour has drastically changed because she is even a fighter at school and has turned into a tomboy as well… At church, they tried to give her some counselling sessions, and when I go to church, she changes the dress code and start(ed) to wear pants,” the court heard from the foster mother during trial.
It was Mdekazi’s version to the court that he found the girl at the tuck shop and “noticed that she was crying”.
According to his version, the girl told him that her place was closed or locked and she could not get inside, and that she did not know what to do. It was then that he decided to take her home with him.
In their judgment, Acting Judge Ashley Kantor and Judge Chantel Fortuin said Mdekazi’s version crumbled with several discrepancies, including that he did not take her to a police station when he found her.
“When asked why he did not check with the neighbours to see if he could leave the complainant with them, he said: ‘It never crossed my mind … That did not cross my mind. I did not, I did not think of that.’ When pressed in cross-examination that this was not credible, he said, ‘I still maintain that did not cross my mind’. That is simply not credible for someone at night trying to drop a young child off.
“Keeping a nine-year-old girl overnight in his home without the knowledge of her parents is a very strange thing to do,” the judges said.
In their judgment dismissing Mdekazi’s appeal against conviction and sentencing, the judges added that the complainant’s evidence was “detailed and cogent”.
Cape Times