Rape Adviser On Child Porn Charge

A Mpumalanga rape counsellor who allegedly took videos of children having sex has been charged with child pornography.

Khanyisizwe Mkhatshwa, a manager in monitoring and evaluation for the Greater Nelspruit Rape Intervention Programme (Grip), was suspended by the NGO last week.

But Mkhatshwa, of Matsulu near Nelspruit, says the materials found on his company laptop and cellphone were not taken by him.

He accused his bosses of wanting to get rid of him because he was a threat to them.

Mkhatshwa said yesterday: "The reason they are getting rid of me is because this year's financial audit is fraudulent and my job is to monitor and evaluate it. So I am a threat.

"They told police who arrested me on Friday that I should not be granted bail and that I must be charged on Monday so that I spend the weekend in jail.

"I love my country's justice system because I'm now out on bail," he said.

He was released on R500 bail on Saturday and is to appear in the Nelspruit magistrate's court today.

Grip chief executive Annesta Hofer suspended Mkhatshwa last week after it was established that he had videos of pupils in compromising positions.

But Mkhatshwa is adamant that he is not guilty.

"I have no idea who took that video. I was also shocked when I first saw it on the laptop," he said.

"Somebody saved it in there and since it was not mine, I did not delete it or tell anybody about it."

He denied that sex videos found on the cellphone were also of bonking pupils, saying "it was sent to me by my friends".

Hofer said as a company that had developed an international reputation for their fight against women and child abuse, they were deeply distressed and disturbed by the incident.

Grip is a non-profit company which supports rape survivors.