SCA reinstates 2021 ruling convicting paramedic of raping his girlfriend
In 2018, the Regional Court in Makhanda found Loyiso Coko guilty of raping his then girlfriend after she had told him she did not want to have sex and wanted to remain a virgin. The conviction was then set aside by the High Court.
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JOHANNESBURG - The Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) has overturned a controversial 2021 ruling overturning a paramedic’s conviction for raping his girlfriend.
In 2018, the Regional Court in Makhanda found Loyiso Coko guilty of raping his then-girlfriend after she had told him she did not want to have sex and wanted to remain a virgin.
The conviction was then set aside by the High Court, which found the State had not proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Coko had "acted intentionally knowing that there was no consent", resulting in widespread outrage.
But the SCA has now reinstated it.
The SCA has found the Makhanda Regional Court was right to reject Loyiso Coko’s defence that there was tacit consent and that the High Court had erred in finding the complainant was an active participant on what the SCA labelled "unsubstantiated grounds" when it overturned the conviction.
Of the High Court's ruling, the SCA said were it to stand, it would be "a perverse incentive to unscrupulous persons taking advantage of their victims".
It also said it would impede the realisation of gender equality and entrench "patriarchal attitudes, stereotypes and mindsets".
The matter’s now been sent back to the High Court to consider the sentence that Coko got, which was seven years.