The Keetmanshoop Regional Court sentenced Johannes Gawa!nab to an effective 20 years of imprisonment for raping two minor boys.

Gawa!nab pleaded guilty to two charges of rape. 

In sentencing Gawa!nab, Divisional Magistrate Frans Anderson said the circumstances of the case highlight the never-ending abuse of children by adults.

In addition, he said society desperately relies on the courts to mete out appropriate sentences to perpetrators.

A lenient sentence, Anderson said, may give rise to anger among the public, who might resort to taking the law into their own hands.

Gawa!nab stands accused of raping a six-year-old boy at Naute Dam Farm near Keetmanshoop on September 6, 2020.

Moreover, he raped an eight-year-old boy between February and December of the year 2020 at the same farm.

Anderson sentenced Gawa!nab to 20 years of imprisonment for the first rape charge, of which five years were suspended for three years. 

For the second offence, he was sentenced to twenty years of imprisonment, of which five years were suspended for three years.

Anderson ordered ten years of the latter sentence to run concurrently with the time given for the first rape offence.

State Prosecutor Abel Manyando prosecuted, while Gawa!nab was represented by Legal Aid Directorate lawyer Edic Kawana.