The 41-year-old man who had been arrested for raping his wife as punishment for cheating on him with another man has been sentenced to 10 years imprisonment without an option of a fine.
The man was further sentenced to two years in a correctional facility with an option of a fine of E5 000 for assaulting his wife with a belt and an electric cable plug all over the body.
He committed both offences on March 18, at Ngculwini.
The names of the man and the complainant are known to this publication but they will be withheld for ethical reasons.
The man was sentenced by Principal Magistrate Florence Msibi at the Manzini Magistrate’s Court yesterday.
This comes after he was slapped with two charges of contravening the Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence (SODV) Act 15/2018.
On count one, he was charged with contravening Section 3(1), 3 (2), 3(3) (c), 3 (6) (c) (e) as read with Section 3 (9) (b) of the SODV Act.
According to the charge sheet, the accused being a husband to the survivor unlawfully had sexual intercourse with her without the use of a condom and her consent, thus contravened the said Act.
The Crown further alleged that the offence was accompanied by aggravating factors as envisaged by Section 185 (bis) of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act, 1938 as amended in that, the accused by this unlawful act inflicted life lasting trauma on the survivor and that he failed to use protective measures to prevent the survivor from exposure to sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV/AIDS.
On count two, the accused was charged with contravening Section 77 (1) (a) of the SODV Act 15/2018, in that being a husband to the survivor, he unlawfully assaulted her with an electric cable and belt several times on the body, where such conduct might have caused eminent harm to the safety, health or well-being of the aggrieved person, thus contravened the said Act.
According to the complainant’s testimony in court, she and the accused have been married under Eswatini Law and Custom since March 3, 2014 and they share five children.
Recounting the events of the night in question, she stated that at approximately 9pm, she was at home when her husband returned from work.
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According to the survivor, their children were asleep in their room, except for the youngest, aged five.
She told the court that upon entering the house, her husband took her cellphone, which had been placed on the bed, sat down and began going through its contents.
She said in the process, he discovered a voice note she had sent to a man she described as an employee of a certain company with whom she was romantically involved.
She said in the message, she had asked the man about his whereabouts and whether they were still in good terms.
“He did not pick my calls, so I sent him a voice note asking if he was home and whether we were still in good terms,” she said.
The complainant testified that her husband confronted her after listening to the recording, questioning whether she was involved with the employee and she denied.
The survivor further mentioned that she told her husband that they have a lot of children already and besides, she was in a lot of pain at the time, following the assault and therefore, she was not going to be in a position to be intimately involved with him.
However, she said her husband proceeded to undress her and further had intercourse with her without her consent and during that process, she tried to inform her husband to stop since she was in deep pain due to allegedly the assault he had meted against her earlier on, but he continued to rape her for about 15-20 minutes.
The survivor, who emphasised that she did not consent to the sexual activity, stated that despite her infidelity, it was wrong for her husband to assault her and further abuse her sexually.
She pointed out that her husband was supposed to report her either to his or her family members for her misbehaviour as opposed to ill-treating her in the manner in which he did.
The survivor further told the court that it was not the first time her husband assaulted her.
