Rapist slapped with eight-year jail term

Nat Molomo MASERU— Fusi Malefane was on Friday slapped with an eight-year-jail sentence for raping an 18-year-old woman. Malefane, 27, from Qoaling in Maseru, pleaded guilty to the charge when he appeared before Maseru magistrate Thabang Mapetja. Prosecutor Thabang Motsamai told the court that had Malefane not pleaded guilty she would have called the complainant who would testify that Malefane forcibly carried her to his house where he raped her while she was unconscious. The complainant, an 18-year-old woman whose name we have withheld, also lives in Qoaling. Motsamai said the victim would have told the court that on July 1 while she was going to a grocery shop, Malefane called her saying his wife wanted to see her. The victim said Malefane then pounced on her and held her by the waist, dragged her to his house where he played loud music so that neighbours would not hear her cries for help.

“The accused gripped her by the waist and took her to his house,” Motsamai said.

“The accused then locked the house and turned on the volume on the radio loudly,”she said. Malefane threw the victim onto his bed and when she tried to run to the door he threw her on the bed again. She asked him what he wanted and he responded that he wanted to have sex with her because “I have seen that you are fit (ke bone u s’o le fiti)”.

He pulled down her trousers and began to rape her. She lost consciousness. Motsamai said when the woman regained consciousness it was around 2230 hours and found that she was naked. Malefane told her to put on her clothes while he mocked her saying she feared “sex to the extent that you blacked out for three hours”. The complainant then leaded with the accused not to kill her because she would not report to the police or to anyone else. The complainant then went home and asked a neighbour for assistance and the neighbour advised her to go to the police. The woman said she was in so much physical and mental anguish that she failed to report the matter to the police on the same day, only doing so the following morning on July 2.

She reported the matter to Police Constable Moselekatse of Lithoteng police who carried out the investigations which led to the arrest of the accused. When the accused failed to give a satisfactory explanation, the police officer arrested and charged him.