The Giyani Magistrate’s Court sentenced a 26-year-old-man to 22 years´ imprisonment for robbery and indecent assault a fortnight ago.

The accused, Reckson Baloyi, was arrested last year in August in connection of the alleged sodomising and robbing of a well-known pastor.

The court was packed by members of various church congregations, together with their pastors and various community structures. The court heard that Baloyi had used a screw driver to threaten the pastor and to rob him.

The pastor testified that Baloyi gained entry to his room at about 23:00 on the night of the incident. He initially thought it was the son of his landlord, but he later realized that the man was a stranger. "He pushed me down on the bed and started to undress me and sodomize me. He then went to the kitchen and cooked all my eggs, and came back and sodomized again me and also forced me to lie face down on the bed. When he left, he just took my cell phone, jacket, groceries and my dearly loved wooden cross which I was awarded when I was running an Evangelical Church in Sekhukhune area," testified the cleric.

In his judgment, Magistrate Chris Mthombeni said it was easy to remove dirt by bathing, but to remove the rape stigma is not easy, and the same thing applies to the pastor, who will never forget what happened in his life.

A former national deputy chairperson of the Treatment Action Campaign, Jennie Milambo, said that she was happy because justice had been done. She also appealed to the other members of the public to come out and fight against the problem.

Baloyi was sentenced to seven years´ imprisonment on the count of robbery and to 15 years on the charge of indecent assault. The two sentences will run concurrently.