Western Cape High Court maintains life sentence for child rapist
Western Cape High Court denies appeal of child rapist Simphiwe Mdekazi.
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A child rapist, Simphiwe Mdekazi, who kidnapped and raped a nine-year-old girl, will remain in life imprisonment after his appeal was rejected by the Western Cape High Court this week.
He was charged with these crimes on or about October 13, 2022, near Khayelitsha, and was subsequently convicted by the Khayelitsha Regional Court.
Mdekazi was convicted on March 27, 2025, and subsequently sentenced to life for rape and five years for kidnapping.
Mdekazi was 44 years old at the time when the incident occurred, 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. 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 06h00”.
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.
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”.