Former paramedic Loyiso Coko must report to the Makhanda Correctional Centre in the Eastern Cape within seven days to begin serving his seven-year sentence for rape.

This, says a News24 report, was the effect of a supplementary judgment from the SCA on Friday in correcting its order handed down against Coko in April.

At the time, the SCA reinstated his conviction after upholding an appeal by the NPA. The conviction emanated from the rape of his girlfriend, who had repeatedly told him that she did not want to have sex because she was still a virgin.

It was the state's case that the two had agreed that they could have oral sex, but Coko went against the agreement, penetrating his girlfriend.

Coko was convicted of rape in the Makhanda Regional Court in September 2020 and sentenced to seven years' imprisonment.

The court ruled that consent to oral sex did not equate to consent to vaginal, penetrative sex.

Coko successfully challenged the judgment in the Eastern Cape High Court (Makhanda) in October 2021.

His conviction was set aside at the time by Acting Judge Tembeka Ngcukaitobi and Judge Nyameko Gqamana on the basis that his then-girlfriend did not object when he undressed her and took off his clothes, making her an ‘equally active participant’.

The NPA approached the SCA, which found the High Court erred by equating consent to oral sex with penetrative sex.

In the SCA ruling in April, it said the question of Coko's sentence was remitted to the High Court for it to determine whether the sentence imposed by the Regional Court was appropriate.

It gave Coko an opportunity to prosecute the appeal against sentence within 20 days of the date of the order, or report to the Makhanda Correctional Centre, notes News24. 

In its supplementary judgment on Friday, the SCA said it had had been informed by the DPP in Makhanda that it could not prioritise the placement of the appeal against the sentence on the roll.

The judgment read: ‘This was so because there was no appeal against sentence pending before the High Court since the respondent had previously been refused leave to appeal by the High Court on petition to it. ‘Paragraph seven of the said order is varied and substituted as follows: The respondent is directed to present himself to the Makhanda Correctional Centre, Makhanda, within seven days of the date of this order to serve his sentence.’

Full News24 report