Mpumalanga priest gets life sentence for raping boy (12)

The Citizen
December 2, 2014

http://citizen.co.za/284878/mpumalanga-priest-gets-life-sentence-rape/

The Sexual Offences Court has sentenced a priest to life imprisonment after he raped a 12-year-old boy on two occasions in August 2011.

During sentencing on Thursday, Magistrate Deon Minnie said the priest, Sipho Matthew Manana (47) at Jericho Apostolic Church in Mhluzi, placed a high premium on his Christian values and is in fact so revered by his followers that he regularly lays his hands in prayer on children in the township at their request, Middelburg Observer reported.

“The accused engaged in grooming when he often bought the child gifts and gave him money, raping the boy on more than one occasion, and making it extremely difficult for the victim from a poor single parent household, to disclose the offences,” said Minnie.

He added that the boy even testified that he loves/likes the accused, but that this proved to the court how effective his grooming tactics were.

Grooming refers to a process by which a person prepares a child, significant adults and the environment for the abuse of the child with the aim of gaining access to the child, gaining the child’s compliance and maintaining the child’s secrecy to avoid disclosure, said Minnie.

Minnie further pointed out that children from broken homes, single-parent families or children who have been exposed to emotional or physical neglect, were often targeted.

Minnie concluded by saying the accused did not accept responsibility for the offence he had committed and that he showed no remorse for what he had done.

It was alleged that the boy’s younger brother also recently revealed that he, too, was sexually abused by Manana. This case is still under investigation.

In October, a priest was arrested for allegedly kidnapping and raping a 15-year-old girl in Itireleng informal settlement near Laudium.

The teenager’s sister sent her to a tuck shop around 11.30am when she saw the priest who told her to go to a certain shack in the area.

When the girl walked to the shack the priest allegedly followed her, raped her, and locked her inside.

Police said the girl’s family attended the man’s church and he was believed to be close friends with the girl’s father.