The Burgersfort Regional Court has sentenced a 45-year-old man to life imprisonment plus an effective 23 years imprisonment for raping his 11-year-old niece and his 20-year-old cousin.
On 28 January 2012, the accused raped his 11-year -ld niece inside the house until the victim’s mother caught him red handed. Then on 22 July 2014, when the accused was collecting firewood in the nearby bushes with his 20-year-old cousin. He threatened the woman with a panga and raped her. The accused further committed armed robbery on 01 May 2016, in Maandagshoek, Sehlaku village. The accused met a 48-year-old woman who was walking home when he produced a knife with the intention to rape her. The duo fought for the knife while the victim screamed for help, but she was stabbed on her left arm. The accused managed to rob her cellphone and ran away.
The accused was categorically sentenced as follows:
* Life imprisonment for rape.
* Twelve (12) years imprisonment for rape.
* Five (05) years imprisonment for armed robbery.
* Three (03) years imprisonment for sexual assault.
Meanwhile, in Thohoyandou, Mulaudzi Rofhiwa (26) was sentenced by the High Court in Thohoyandou to an effective sixty (60) years imprisonment without fine. Mulaudzi was arrested for a series of serious and violent crimes ranging from robbery with aggravating circumstances to kidnappings which he committed during 2015 in the Levubu and Vuwani Policing areas under the Thohoyandou Cluster.
The Provincial Commissioner of the South African Police Service in Limpopo Lieutenant General Nneke Ledwaba has commended the Saps Teams of Detectives including the Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences (FCS) Unit on the job well done. “We hope that these sentences will bring a closure to all these victims and it will serve as a deterrent to all the criminals and criminals to be out there that crime does not pay,” concluded Lieutenant General Ledwaba.
