A Mpumalanga man, Mxolisi Gugu Shongwe, 27, from Hlau Hlau Trust near White River, has been sentenced to life in prison for raping five women and two teenagers on Friday.
Shongwe was said to have stalked his victims and threatened them with a knife and gun before raping them between 2007 and 2014. The two teens, both under the age of 16, were raped after their mother asked then to sell some items at a local market, to enable them meet their needs, while another victim was misled by him at the bus stop, when she was waiting for a bus, it was reported that he had told her that the bus had already left but followed her and raped her while threatening her with a knife.
The other victim who was pregnant at the time of the attack, was accosted and raped at gunpoint when she was walking to her boyfriend’s home from her parent’s home.
Another woman who was also raped, was returning from her grandmother’s house.
Delivering the judgment at the Nelspruit High Court, Judge Zeenat Carelse said the victim’s pre-sentencing reports showed that almost all of them still experience trauma when recounting their ordeal and stated further that the suspect had not shown any genuine sign of remorse for the crime.
Shongwe was caught in 2014, when police investigation led them to his girlfriend who was using one of his victim’s cellphone.
While pleading for mercy, he claimed that the death of his mother as a result of cancer in 2006 had caused him emotional trauma, which led him to committing the crime.
