Winnie and Mandela's grandson granted bail of R7000 by a Magistrates court

The 24-year-old grandson of the late former president was on Tuesday 25 August granted bail of R7000 by a Magistrates court in Johannesburg where he is facing a charge of rape and sexual assault of a 15-year-old girl at a restaurant in Greenside, Johannesburg, which occurred on August 7.

According to a news24, the statement by a key witness Goola Singh, a chef at the restaurant where the alleged rape took place who claimed to have seen the grandson of Nelson Mandela and his teenage rape accuser kissing passionately was instrumental to his release on bail. The young man asked the court to set bail between R5 and R10000 because he was unemployed, had two children and is expecting a third one.

“He does not want to be tried as a Mandela but he wants to be tried as a normal person” his lawyer, Marinda Velsman, told the court.

Last week, he admitted in court that he had had sex with the girl but the sex was consensual and he believed she was older than 16. He claimed he sat on a chair while the girl "straddled him during sex".

Marinda Veldsman handed in an affidavit by Goola Singh, employed as a chef at the restaurant where the alleged rape took place. Singh said he saw the accused and the girl kissing passionately in a passage.

“They seemed very comfortable with each other. I noticed nothing untoward between the man and the woman outside my window. If there had been noises of a struggle I would have heard,” his affidavit reads.

However according to the complainant, the accused allegedly forcefully kissed her, put his hands in her pants, threw her on the floor and raped her. She said she was screaming at the time.

The defense disputed the girl's age and claimed a birth certificate handed in to the court was not hers. Veldsman referred to accounts on social media sites Facebook and Twitter, said to be maintained by the complainant, that appeared to show her to be older than 16.

The suspect’s lawyer argued that his client had no way of knowing the girl was underage as the restaurant had a policy barring anyone younger than 21. He claimed the complainant was drinking alcohol and smoking with her friends. Therefore, these were some reasons he believed her to be of the age of consent.

Source: news24
Photo of two of his relatives, Makaziwe and Ndaba Mandela outside the court.Photo Credit: Alon Skuy