SCA reinstates conviction of Loyiso Coko in controversial rape case

The Regional Court in Makhanda ruled that former paramedic Loyiso Coko was found guilty of raping his then-girlfriend after she had told him that she did not want to have sex and wanted to remain a virgin instead, as reported by EWN .

The conviction was later set aside by the High Court after the State had not proven beyond a reasonable doubt that Coko had acted intentionally, knowing there was no consent. Now, the SCA has overturned its decision.

The SCA found that 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.

When the High Court acquitted Coko in 2021, there was mass public outcry. The Soul City Institute for Social Justice released a statement saying the judgment showed the “extent of South Africa’s rape crisis,” Daily Maverick reported.

“As an organisation committed to the rights and well-being of young women and girls, we continuously advise young women of their right to bodily autonomy, that a woman is entitled to say no at any stage and they have a right for that position to be respected,” the statement said.

At his initial trial in a magistrate’s court, Coko pleaded not guilty to the charge of rape. However, he was found to have unlawfully and intentionally committed an act of sexual penetration.

In the original story, Coko’s girlfriend agreed to spend the night with him under the caveat that no sex would occur. The two engaged in foreplay, to which she consented, which later led to non-consensual sex. She asked him to stop and get off her as he was hurting her, which Coko acknowledged but claimed she did not ask him to stop.

Coko later said that penetrative sexual intercourse flowed from the ‘foreplay’ in the form of oral sex that they had engaged in preceding the penetrative sexual intercourse.

The SCA emphasised in its judgment that consent to foreplay did not constitute consent to an act of penetration. It upheld the trial court’s finding that something more than body language was needed to establish consent.

After Coko was found guilty, he unsuccessfully applied to the regional court for leave to appeal against his conviction before turning to the High Court.

The SCA concluded that rape was proved beyond a reasonable doubt in the case and that the High Court’s interference with the findings of the trial court was “unwarranted”.

The matter has now been sent back to the High Court to consider the sentence that Coko received, which was seven years.