Hankey woman faces rape accused in court

A businesswoman, brutally attacked on her Hankey farm in 2018, came face to face on Monday with the man who allegedly raped and shot her in front of her young children.

While the mother of three bravely fought back tears at the Port Elizabeth High Court, Sebenzile Simane, 32, paused at the bottom of the stairs leading out of the holding cells, where he put his hands together and appeared to be praying.

He then confidently entered the dock and pleaded not guilty to 17 serious counts including housebreaking, robbery, kidnapping, rape, attempted rape, attempted murder and the illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition.

Simane said through his lawyer, advocate Jodene Coertzen, that while he would not offer a plea explanation at this stage of the proceedings, his defence was based on a denial of the allegations against him.

Simane was a worker on the farm belonging to the woman and her husband.

It is alleged that on the evening of March 23 2018, the woman and her children were alone at home when Simane fired a shot through the glass sliding door and forced his way into her bedroom.

The mother was shot in the buttocks, while bullets narrowly missed the three children, aged 15, 13, and nine.

He allegedly proceeded to tie up the two older children and raped the mother, a respected businesswoman, on more than one occasion.

He then drove her to an Absa ATM to withdraw money from her bank account.

While he admitted that a photograph extracted from the ATM camera – an exhibit before court – was in fact him, Simane did not give an explanation for this.

The woman, supported in court by a group of family, friends and representatives from AfriForum, is expected to take the stand on Tuesday as the prosecution’s first witness.

Acting judge Olav Ronaasen ordered that her testimony be held in-camera and that her identity, as well as the identity of her children and the name of the farm not be disclosed.

Magda Coetzee, of AfriForum’s victim support centre in Pretoria, said the centre was dealing with up to three farm attacks a week.

She said there had been a worrying increase in attacks, most of them fatal.

She said it was her job to walk the entire path with the victims if they wanted her to.

From counselling, to assisting with statements, to the court process, she had been by the woman’s side.

“[She] is an iron woman, but we are all just people at the end of the day,” Coetzee said.

“Her life was thrown upside down due to the attack.”

Simane faces additional charges in relation to an incident on February 6 2018, in which Dorris Mketshani was robbed at knifepoint.

He denied the charge and said he had been in Kimberley at the time.