PARKTOWN – The South African Police Service is committed in fighting the scourge of gender-based violence. Investigating officers in the Service have been urged to prioritise the investigation of crimes against women, children and vulnerable persons.
On Thursday 19 November 2020 during the Pretoria High Court sitting in the Benoni Magistrate’s Court, Judge Herman Broodryk sentenced the 33-year old accused serial rapist, Thabani Victor Zondo to 6 life terms imprisonment and an additional 237 years for a series of crimes committed around the areas of Brakpan, Nigel, Tsakane and Zonkizizwe over a period of four years. The thirty-one charges brought against him included: rape, attempted murder, robbery with aggravating circumstances, kidnapping, compelled rape and attempted compelled rape.
In 2015 Sergeant Johnson Motlalepula Nkoana was assigned to the serial rape case and immediately commenced with the investigation; following up on all the available leads. The accused Thabani Victor Zondo and an unknown accomplice mercilessly kidnapped, repeatedly raped and robbed their victims of their belongings; the first case going as far back as 2011. One victim was only 15-years-old at the time when she was attacked by the accused.
The meticulousness of Nkoana led him to trace and arrest the accused in Free State province. The Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks) of Free State Province arrested the accused on a case of hijacking, unrelated to the serial rape case in Gauteng. It is through the application of forensic techniques and processes by Nkoana that positively linked Thabani Victor Zondo to the series of crimes in Gauteng Province; ensuring a water-tight case against the accused in court.
Sergeant Nkoana is consistently securing hefty convictions, he also secured the conviction of the accused serial rapist Amos Mphikeleli Ngubeni to ten life sentences and an additional 177 years in the Pretoria High Court sitting in the Benoni Magistrate Court on 28 charges, 13 of which were rape on Monday, 14 September 2020. The accused was linked to a series of rape cases which had been reported in Tsakane and Duduza (Gauteng), Balfour (Mpumalanga), Thabazimbi (Limpopo), and Umkomaas (KwaZulu Natal).
The Acting Gauteng Provincial Commissioner of the SAPS, Major General Patricia Rampota has welcomed the hefty sentence handed down on the accused today and commended Sergeant Johnson Motlalepula Nkoana for his relentless commitment and passion to resolve crimes against women, children and vulnerable persons. “Sheer dedication and thoroughness by investigating officers in the investigation of crimes related to gender-based violence and femicide will restore the communities’ faith in the South African Police Service”, said Major General Rampota.
