AfriForum demands apology from Mchunu over EC principal's implication in rape of minor

JOHANNESBURG - The Afrikaner interest lobby group, AfriForum, is demanding that Police Minister Senzo Mchunu apologise to the head of a school in the Eastern Cape.

According to the group, Mchunu made defamatory statements about the principal when he identified him as a suspect in the investigation into the rape of a seven-year-old girl in Matatiele.

The rape allegedly occurred on the premises of the school, but the headmaster has said he was not at the specific school premises where the minor was on the day, and on the two subsequent days when the child was at school.

AfriForum has defended the principal’s decision not to submit his DNA sample to police, saying it would be irrational.

A statement released by the Police Ministry in March stated that the principal was among three individuals identified as suspects in the rape of the little girl, a statement that AfriForum has taken issue with.

The lobby group has labelled the remark as defamatory, accusing the minister of deliberately publishing lies.

Made worse, according to AfriForum, is the police’s knowledge that the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) declined to prosecute the case in November 2024 because, among other reasons, no foreign DNA had been recovered from the minor.

It said the failure to set the record straight had contributed to a disinformation campaign by the police minister and had turned the principal’s life upside down, exposing him to a life-threatening ordeal.

AfriForum warned that its quest for consequences would not be deterred.

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