Johannesburg - A 31-year-old man has been slapped with a life sentence for severely assaulting and raping an 82-year-old woman on two occasions.
Regiment Maluleke was handed the hefty sentence on Tuesday at the Mhala Regional Court in Mpumalanga.
The court heard how in 2017 Maluleke, who was armed with a knife, broke into the woman’s house in Mazembeni village near Hazyview while she was asleep.
Maluleke severely assaulted then raped her.
Scared, the woman did not report the matter as she had been threatened by Maluleke.
Some time later, Maluleke returned to the old woman’s house again at night, broke in, beat her up and raped her again.
After the second incident the woman alerted her neighbours and police were informed and a case was opened.
Mpumalanga police spokesperson Brigadier Leonard Hlathi said they managed to trace Maluleke and arrested him.
After a lenghty trial, Maluleke was convicted on February 12 then sentenced on Tuesday.
“The accused was also found to be unfit to possess a firearm and his name will be entered into the register of sexual offenders,” Hlathi said.
Mpumalanga Commissioner Lieutenant General Mondli Zuma has indicated the sentence will “undoubtedly” serve as a deterrent to other criminals.
“We are delighted that another rapist has been removed from the streets," he said.
Meanwhile, Gauteng police say a suspect in the Soweto incident where a 61-year-old woman was raped and beaten to death by assailants who also raped her 21-year-old granddaughter, has been killed in a robbery.
The assailants had gained access into the old woman’s house on Friday by breaking the burglar bar and entering through a sliding door.
The grandmother, who was severely injured during the attack, was rushed to the nearby Tshepo-Themba clinic in Soweto, where she was declared dead on arrival.
IOL