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| Mbuso Mandela,Mandela's grandson accused of assualt. |
Mbuso Mandela,Mandela's grandson, gets bail for r*pe case.
Mbuso Mandela,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 r*pe and s3xual 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 r*pe 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 intimacy with the girl but it was consensual and he believed she was older than 16.
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 denied the story and says it was contrary.
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.
Mbuso Mandela Mandela's grandson gets bail for case.
Source: news24