Sentencing proceedings for a pastor convicted of raping a congregant who was a rape survivor were stopped yesterday after his lawyer asked for the case to be reviewed.
Pastor Mthetheleli Mnaphu also launched a second bail application in the Parow Regional Court yesterday.
The holy man burst into tears of disappointment when he was told this would only take place on Friday.
Court orderlies had to pass on a wad of tissues from the packed gallery to the weeping Mnaphu.
The 50-year-old’s bail was revoked last month when he was convicted on two counts of rape.
He was arrested in September last year after a female church member accused him of raping her since 2009, when she was 18 years old.
Mnaphu first appeared in the Daily Voice in July last year when he laid a crimen injuria charge against his victim’s fiancé who took to the church website to expose his crimes.
Yesterday proceedings ground to a halt when Mnaphu’s lawyer, Uvile Siyo, told the court she had approached the Western Cape High Court to review Magistrate Mandy van Leeve’s decision to revoke bail.
But Van Leeve said she knew nothing about the High Court application and would need to see a transcript before continuing with the case.
Following a long adjournment, the magistrate agreed to a bail application but said she could not go ahead with it immediately.
When Siyo insisted they go ahead, the exasperated magistrate responded: “You cannot, absolutely cannot, place a matter on my roll without my permission.”
The accused could be heard in the dock mumbling through his tears about how his kids were suffering as a result of the delays.