AfriForum's Advocate Gerrie Nel says child likely raped at a party, not at Matatiele school

In a scathing letter addressed to the Eastern Cape police commissioner, AfriForum’s Advocate Gerrie Nel said the police have asked for a DNA sample from the principal at whose school, Bergview College, a seven-year old was raped because the “complainant wanted one done” and not because he was a suspect.

Explaining his own investigation and analysis of the case to the provincial police commissioner in a letter, Nel, from AfriForum’s Private Prosecution Unit, said he is convinced that the seven-year-old rape survivor from Matatiele was raped at a party and not at the school.

Nel, nicknamed the Bulldog for his tenacity in court, rose to fame as the prosecutor in the Oscar Pistorius case and the case against the late police commissioner Jackie Selebi. He worked as a prosecutor for 33 years before starting AfriForum’s Private Prosecution Unit.

Nel said he was representing the school principal of Bergview College, Jaco Pieterse, “to ensure that he does not fall victim to an abuse of power or that of the social media detectives who make reckless allegations with little concern of allowing the authorities the space to establish the truth of the matter”.

In a series of videos that were widely disseminated, the mother of the child claims that the child was raped at the school when she was asked to sweep a remote classroom. She then fell asleep, after smelling something like tyres burning, and woke up badly injured in the school’s classroom.

But Nel said the timeline of the mother’s narrative and the first signs of injury in the child does not correspond. This, he said, would mean that the police were looking for suspects in the wrong place.

Read more: SAPS appoints top cop to Matatiele child rape investigation as justice campaign gains momentum

He also said that summonses for defamation will be issued against ANC Secretary General Fikile Mbalula, Police Minister Senzo Mchunu and Eastern Cape MEC for Education Fundile Gade, who all claimed that Pieterse was a suspect in the case. Gade also claimed that Pieterse would be arrested this week. 

“The failure of the SAPS to properly investigate this case and provide meaningful feedback to the complainant has perpetuated an environment where false and defamatory allegations appear to have shifted the focus to the unjustified trial by media of individuals rather than establishing, analysing and collating the objective facts/evidence indicating what the offences are, who are the suspects and presenting such evidence to the National Prosecuting Authority expeditiously,” Nel wrote in his letter.

“It has now reached the point that senior public officials and politicians are broadcasting blatant misinformation,” Nel said, pointing towards Mbalula, saying that they were “shielding” a suspect even though the police investigators have never officially named Pieterse as a suspect. Mbalula has not yet responded to a request for comment.

Nel explained that the problem with Pieterse not providing a DNA sample for comparison was that the police have never followed procedure by identifying him formally as a suspect and then asking for a sample. In contrast, Nel pointed out, he was asked to give one to satisfy the complainant.

Education MEC Gade made similar statements, adding that Pieterse “will be arrested this week”. Gade has not yet responded to a request for comment.

Police Minister Mchunu refers to “three individuals, including the school principal, identified as suspects”. His spokesperson, Kamogelo Mogotsi, said they are not in a position to comment as they have not received anything formal yet from Pieterse.

Nel said the injuries of the child, as described by the mother, were such that she (the child) would have been unable to move and go to school for a whole day and go to a party before the mother found the extent of her injuries. The mother did say, however, that when she found the child, she was wearing blood-stained tracksuit pants and also that the child was likely drugged.

Nel said the school’s internal investigation contains statements from three female teachers and the caretaker who were present on the school premises at the time that the mother alleges the rape took place.

“We accept that the investigating officer concluded that Pieterse had no contact with the child at all on the day. Not a single minute. He was not even in close proximity to the child’s location. We must further accept that the victim failed to identify our client as the suspect. If he was identified as the suspect, the conduct or failure by the SAPS to act is inexcusable. The only inference is that the SAPS correctly excluded Pieterse as a suspect.

“This is further confirmed by the productive meeting Pieterse and the school’s board chair had on 10 December 2024 with District Commissioner Major General Nompumelelo Majikijela, Colonel Mdluli from Maluti SAPS, Matatiele Station Commander Colonel Sithonga, as well as two members from the police’s Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Units, where his and the school’s assistance in the investigation was discussed,” Nel continued.

Nel said on the mother’s own version as described in a TikTok video, she found out that the child was badly injured after a community party on the evening of 15 October 2024. 

“The child woke up several times during the night due to the extreme pain she was suffering. It was only on the morning of 16 October 2024, when the child could not walk, that the mother examined her child and discovered she had suffered extreme anal trauma.

“Any investigator, let alone a detective who specialises in sexual offences against children, is capable of analysing these facts and reaching the unassailable conclusion that the child was conceivably not raped on 14 October 2024, as alleged, but rather later in the week.

“We have to accept that the investigating officer realised that if the child was raped on 14 October 2024, one would have to believe that a seven-year-old girl went about her daily routine for more than 24 hours, including going to school, despite [being severally injured]. One would have to accept that inexplicably, the serious trauma only manifested more than 24 hours after the injuries were inflicted.

“We surmise that the effect of such extreme trauma would immediately debilitate the victim,” he continued.

Nel added that it was impossible for the trauma the child suffered to only manifest itself a day later. He said that, as a result, he doesn’t understand  why the police have been looking for suspects at the school rather than the broader community. 

“The child victim of rape has been let down, but so has our client whose life is being destroyed by the relentless social media disinformation campaign,” he said.

Community gender-based activist Anele Mda, who is also assisting the family, said they believed AfriForum will “mischievously advance the miscarriage of justice so desperately deserved by the victim. Gerrie Nel is nothing in the South African Police and possesses no authority to make unfounded pronouncements to deliberately create confusion and seek to destroy the investigation to unfairly buy Jaco Pieterse’s innocence”.

“Jaco Pieterse can only be cleared and exonerated by the SAPS investigation, not anyone else who wants to volunteer their unsolicited dubious opinions and wants to place them as facts. Gerrie Nel must not run an uninvited parallel informal investigation whose scope and terms of reference are questionable and lack credence,” Mda said.

A former Matatiele resident who now lives in Johannesburg, auditor Raymond Mayekisa, said he has been raising money to assist the family as the medical bills for the child’s injuries were extensive and the mother said she would have to sell her car as her medical aid was exhausted. 

He added that they would love to appoint a pro bono lawyer to represent the family to ensure that a thorough investigation is done.

Mayekisa said he also wanted to urge the police to look at how rape victims are handled by the local police. “For any case to be resolved, you have to be someone,” he said. “Otherwise, they will just investigate at their own pace and not serve justice.” 

He said as the police were getting nowhere, the community started investigating themselves, and the school “being difficult” did raise red flags for them. “But here in Matatiele, you need power and money to resolve a case.” DM