Aged Gobabis farmer given bail in street child sex case

FRIDAY the 13th did not turn out to be jinxed for Gobabis farmer and rape accused Abraham Jacobus Roux.

He succeeded with his appeal in the High Court against the two refusals by the Gobabis Magistrate’s Court to grant him bail. On Friday, Judge Sylvester Mainga handed down an order in terms of which Roux’s appeal against the refusal of bail was allowed.Reasons for the order, which came nine days after Judge Mainga and Judge Annel Silungwe had heard legal arguments on Roux’s appeal, are to follow at a later stage.The two High Court Judges ordered that Roux (69) should be released from custody if he deposits N$20 000 bail, and on condition that he may not communicate or interfere with State witnesses, particularly the five young men or teenage boys who are the complainants in respect of the five counts of rape Roux faces.Roux may also not leave the district of Gobabis without the permission of the Gobabis Police Station’s commander, has to surrender his passport or any other travel document to the station commander, and may in the meantime not apply for a new travel document, the court ordered.Roux, from the farm Vierpanne in the Gobabis district, has been in Police custody since his arrest on April 6.Since April 21, he has been under Police guard in a hospital at Gobabis, where he was admitted with a deteriorating health condition attributed to high blood pressure, anxiety, depression and a developing gastric ulcer.Roux was arrested on allegations that he had sexually molested five boys or young men, ranging in age between 11 and 20 according to the State, or between 10 and 15, according to Roux himself.During one of the two unsuccessful bail applications he brought in the Gobabis Magistrate’s Court, Roux admitted that over a period of about three years there had been “some kind of indirect sexual relations” between him and one of the five complainants in his case, in the words of his counsel, Esi Schimming-Chase, during the hearing of his High Court appeal.As Roux sketched it to the Magistrate’s Court, one incident took place at the instigation of one of the complainants who have been described as street children who would approach him when he visited Gobabis on business to offer sexual services.What occurred after that, he claimed, was that he allowed one to sexually stimulate him.During the appeal hearing, Public Prosecutor Job Kozonguizi argued that the refusal of bail for Roux had been correct as there was evidence that he had offered about N$3 000 to each of the complainants to persuade them not to lay charges against him.Schimming-Chase argued that the Gobabis magistrate, who had turned down his requests to be released on bail, had already decided that Roux was guilty and had wanted to make an example of him.She further argued that while Roux was being locked up, the complainants remained out on the street where they could continue to offer sexual services “to all and sundry”.The State had a constitutional duty to take these children off the street and to provide them with shelter, food and clothing, she argued.On Friday, Judge Sylvester Mainga handed down an order in terms of which Roux’s appeal against the refusal of bail was allowed.Reasons for the order, which came nine days after Judge Mainga and Judge Annel Silungwe had heard legal arguments on Roux’s appeal, are to follow at a later stage.The two High Court Judges ordered that Roux (69) should be released from custody if he deposits N$20 000 bail, and on condition that he may not communicate or interfere with State witnesses, particularly the five young men or teenage boys who are the complainants in respect of the five counts of rape Roux faces.Roux may also not leave the district of Gobabis without the permission of the Gobabis Police Station’s commander, has to surrender his passport or any other travel document to the station commander, and may in the meantime not apply for a new travel document, the court ordered.Roux, from the farm Vierpanne in the Gobabis district, has been in Police custody since his arrest on April 6.Since April 21, he has been under Police guard in a hospital at Gobabis, where he was admitted with a deteriorating health condition attributed to high blood pressure, anxiety, depression and a developing gastric ulcer.Roux was arrested on allegations that he had sexually molested five boys or young men, ranging in age between 11 and 20 according to the State, or between 10 and 15, according to Roux himself.During one of the two unsuccessful bail applications he brought in the Gobabis Magistrate’s Court, Roux admitted that over a period of about three years there had been “some kind of indirect sexual relations” between him and one of the five complainants in his case, in the words of his counsel, Esi Schimming-Chase, during the hearing of his High Court appeal.As Roux sketched it to the Magistrate’s Court, one incident took place at the instigation of one of the complainants who have been described as street children who would approach him when he visited Gobabis on business to offer sexual services.What occurred after that, he claimed, was that he allowed one to sexually stimulate him.During the appeal hearing, Public Prosecutor Job Kozonguizi argued that the refusal of bail for Roux had been correct as there was evidence that he had offered about N$3 000 to each of the complainants to persuade them not to lay charges against him.Schimming-Chase argued that the Gobabis magistrate, who had turned down his requests to be released on bail, had already decided that Roux was guilty and had wanted to make an example of him.She further argued that while Roux was being locked up, the complainants remained out on the street where they could continue to offer sexual services “to all and sundry”.The State had a constitutional duty to take these children off the street and to provide them with shelter, food and clothing, she argued.