'I didn't know she dates women'

2008-01-17 21:33

Grahamstown - A 28-year-old man accused of raping his former girlfriend told the Grahamstown Regional Court on Thursday he was shocked when friends told him she had been dating women in his absence.

Bekokwakhe Ngesi of Butterworth appeared before Magistrate Sampson Dunywa and pleaded not guilty to raping the 21-year-old woman on April 7 last year at New Location, Grahamstown.

Ngesi, who was giving evidence in his own defence, told the court he was employed as a bank teller in Butterworth, and he had a long standing relationship with the complainant.

He said the woman was a friend of his former girlfriend who died in 2002.

"I proposed love to her shortly after my girlfriend died, but she refused to accept it because the timing was too close to her friend's death.

"When I came back to Grahamstown from Butterworth to attend my grandfather's funeral, my friends told me she had been dating women. I was very shocked by this and from then on, I distanced myself from her."

However, in her in-camera evidence, the woman said she was a lesbian, but had ended the relationship with Ngesi "a long time ago".

She said she had allowed Ngesi to sleep on the couch at her flat as he had nowhere else to stay when he attended the funeral. She gave him a pillow and a blanket and said he must sleep on the couch.

The state alleges, and the woman claims, that later that night Ngesi overpowered and raped her.

Questioned by his lawyer Xolani Mvabana about his version of events that night, Ngesi claimed that their "lovemaking was passionate and consensual".

Ngesi told the court the woman had invited him to come and stay with her, and had even sent messages and pictures of herself to his cellphone.

'We were passionate'

"I thought she was coming out of that (lesbian) phase and wanted to be with me. She let me in the flat and was dressed only in a t-shirt and her underwear.

"We lay on the bed and did a little catching up on past times and started to hug and kiss each other. She told me I was hot and I told her so was she. We were very passionate together."

Ngesi claimed that sexual intercourse was consensual, and at no time did he force the woman to have sex with him.

"I would never do such a thing, not even to my former girlfriends. I do not even like hearing about it on TV, or anywhere else," he said.

Judgment is expected on Friday.

- SAPA