Nelson Mandela’s grandson has been charged with raping a 15-year-old girl at a restaurant in Greenside, Johannesburg last Friday.
Mbuso Mandela, 24, appeared in court briefly yesterday where the charges were read. He has not entered a plea and will stay in police custody until Friday, when his bail application is due to be heard.
The accused was arrested on August 14th.
Reports in South African media quoting the victim’s family spokesperson claimed that the girl was raped inside a toilets when she went to use the rest room in the restaurant.
“Just because they have a famous surname, they think they can get away with crime. Children can’t just be raped and then everything is alright. The girl is young and doesn’t even drink,” the spokesperson to South African media.
Brigadier Mashadi Selepe, a police spokeswoman, said the investigation was ongoing. “According to the complainant it happened on 7 August 2015,” she continued. “It was reported to the police on the 14 August 2015.”
Nelson Mandela, who became South Africa’s first democratic president in 1994, was jailed for 27 years for fighting against white minority rule under apartheid.
He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 for promoting reconciliation between blacks and whites in South Africa and became the nation’s first black president a year later. He died on Dec. 5, 2013, at the age of 95.
