EXLUSIVE: POLICE DESPERATE ATTEMPT TO ADD RAPE ON BACEDE’S CHARGES
It’s an all out war against Hosea Member of Parliament Bacede Mabuza. The Bridge can today exclusively reveal that the police have been investigating Mabuza for rape allegations.
This publication has been following information that the state has been so desperate to have Mabuza convicted of one charge or another that they wanted to amend his charges and add rape.
The Bridge can now authoratively reveal that after spirited investigations the state could not build a winnable case against Mabuza after failing to convince one of their witness to file charges of rape.
Information sourced from highly impeccable sources is that the police went to a high school going teenager and interviewed her with the idea that they could persuade her to implicate Mabuza on charges of rape.
The state had gotten information to the effect that Mabuza had dated a high school going kid and that according to the SODV Act he could be charged with rape.
Previously, the Protections of Women and Girls Act prohibited sleeping with a girl under 16 and treated it as statutory rape. This law was repealed by the Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence (SODV) Act which prohibited sexual consent for all girls below the age of 18. Under this law all sexual encounters with a girl less than 18 years is rape.
Police interviewed several people trying to build a case against Mabuza and upon realising Mabuza had not forced himself on anyone then wanted to establish the age of the girl with the hope that if she was below the legal consent age it could be enough to charge him under the SODV.
However upon being approached by the police the young girl, name known to this newspaper but wont be revealed for ethical reasons, approached the Mabuza family and informed them that the police were trying to coerce her into filing rape charges against Mabuza.
The idea, The Bridge now understands, was to impugn Mabuza’s reputation and divide his support base. The Mabuza family and his legal team was alerted of the state’s maneuvers and began to prepare for the worse. The Bridge sources within the police told this publication that the state hit a snag as soon as the girl refused to implicate Mabuza in any forced sexual encounter.
“I do not know where the investigation is now but from where I am standing the state had to drop the case because charges should have been added to the charge sheet before the beginning of their trial. Remember, the powers that be hate the man. They think he is the chief orchestrator of everything that has been happening in the country. They trace back everything to how he was the leader of opposition against the government in parliament and how he rallied other MPs to oppose everything. So when we heard that he was now investigated for rape we knew what was happening,” said a source within the police.
Mabuza is currently on trial for terrorism and murder at the High Court together with Mthandeni Dube. While in prison Mabuza’s hardware was torched by unknown arsonists in what many say were state agents.
Yesterday his family was attacked by unknown criminals. Mabuza’s attorney Sicelo Mngomezulu confirmed that the police had tried to interview certain people trying to build a rape case against his client.
He said all this was part of the state’s agenda to malign Mabuza and tarnish his image. “It is all meant to divide his support base and tarnish his image. All this is part of a desperate agenda to continue the persecution against my client,” Mngomezulu said. Mngomezulu said he would rather not comment on the high school girl approaching the Mabuza family to reveal what the police were trying to make her do instead only confirms that as the legal team they were aware of such baseless allegations concocted by the state.
He said they are not surprised that the police eventually abandoned their fishing expedition because no court of law would have found him guilty of rape. He said such investigation was only meant to divide his supporters and soil his good name.
He promised though that whatever desperate attempt by the state his client was in high spirit and not ready to abandon the call for full democracy in the country.