Omusati rapist gets extra time in prison

The Supreme Court has added five years to the prison term of a man who raped a pregnant woman twice after breaking into a house in the Omusati region 12 years ago.

There were no substantial and compelling circumstances present in the case of Sem Shafoishuna Haufiku that warranted a departure from prison terms of 15 years prescribed by the Combating of Rape Act on each of the two rape charges on which Haufiku was found guilty, deputy chief justice Petrus Damaseb found in an appeal judgement delivered in the Supreme Court on Friday.

Damaseb also disagreed with a finding by the trial judge that there was no evidence showing the woman who had been attacked and raped by Haufiku had suffered lasting physical or psychological trauma.

The deputy chief justice remarked that research conducted by the Legal Assistance Centre has demonstrated that social stigma attaches to rape.

Damaseb stated: “Even in the absence of specific evidence, the baseline assumption must be that non-consensual sexual intercourse with a woman is the most humiliating experience she can ever be subjected to. I doubt that a woman can ever forget the day that she had been subjected to the indignity of rape!”

Haufiku was sentenced to an effective prison term of 17 years at the end of his trial in the Oshakati High Court in April 2019. He was sentenced after he had been convicted on two charges of rape, a count of housebreaking with intent to steal and theft and a charge of housebreaking with intent to rob and robbery.

Haufiku was 18 years old when he broke into a house in the Okahao area of the Omusati region on 18 July 2011, threatened a woman inside the house with a knife, raped the woman, forced to her to open a cuca shop over which she was the caretaker, stole items from the shop, and then raped the woman for a second time.

The woman was about three months pregnant when the incident took place.

Haufiku was sentenced to a prison term of 10 years on each of the rape charges after the trial judge found there were substantial and compelling circumstances to allow sentences lower than the minimum term of 15 years’ imprisonment that the Combating of Rape Act prescribes for rape committed with the use of a firearm or other weapon, such as a knife.

Haufiku’s sentence on one of the rape charges was ordered to run concurrently with the sentence on the other count of rape. Together with the sentences on the two housebreaking charges, he received an effective sentence of 17 years’ imprisonment.

The judgement delivered in the Supreme Court on Friday is the result of an appeal by the state against the trial court’s sentences on the two rape charges.

The deputy chief justice, who wrote the appeal judgement, noted that during his trial Haufiku showed a remarkable lack of remorse over what he had done to the woman he raped.

Although the court had to consider Haufiku’s youthfulness at the time he committed the crimes and the fact he was held in custody for about eight years before his trial was concluded, that could not outweigh the gravity of his conduct, Damaseb said.

The appeals court set aside the High Court’s sentences on the rape charges and replaced them with prison terms of 15 years on each of the two counts. The court also ordered that eight years of the sentence on the one rape charge and the sentences of five years’ and two years’ imprisonment on the two housebreaking charges should run concurrently with the 15-year sentence on the second rape charge, resulting in an effective prison term of 22 years.

Appeal judge Elton Hoff and acting judge of appeal Rita Makarau agreed with Damaseb’s judgement.

Deputy prosecutor general Ruben Shileka represented the state in the appeal. Haufiku was represented by defence lawyer Grace Mugaviri, instructed by the Directorate of Legal Aid.