Late appeal allowed against freed rapist

A man who walked free after he was given a suspended sentence for raping his ex-girlfriend and trying to kill her – first exposed in Legalbrief Today in October 2014 – may yet receive a tougher penalty. Three years after the case was concluded, the state has won the right to appeal against his ‘shockingly light’ sentence, says a Sunday Times report. It notes that although the deadline to apply for leave to appeal against a sentence is 30 days, the Directorate of Public Prosecutions only became aware of the 2013 case the following year. The directorate brought an application in the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria to allow a late appeal, and last week Judge Hennie de Vos ruled he would allow the request, as the DPP had ‘reasonable prospects of success on appeal’. Buti William Mtshali was convicted by a Magistrate’s Court in Limpopo of raping and attempting to murder a fellow employee at the game lodge where he worked. For rape, Mtshali was sentenced to five years in jail, all suspended, and for attempted murder, fined R2 000. De Vos said the magistrate had put far too much weight on the fact that Mtshali had custodial care of two children after he got divorced. The children were actually looked after by the grandparents when he changed employment. Although he was a breadwinner he was not the primary caregiver. The magistrate also erred by not considering the impact on the woman of the attack, said the judge. The matter came to light when the victim took a sexual harassment claim to the Labour Court, notes Legalbrief. It was Labour Court Judge AJ Snyman who alerted the authorities to the case. In his ruling in that case, he said: 'I am of the view that the sentence imposed on Mtshali is an affront to the human dignity and bodily and psychological integrity of the applicant, considering what he did to her.'