Pretoria - While the country marks the first week of 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children, the courts, in dealing with an array of cases, have shown that such conduct will not be tolerated.
In one case, a serial rapist and killer was sentenced to four life imprisonment terms this week as well as an additional 15 years imprisonment.
The Mpumalanga High Court sentenced Philani Justice Nkosi, 35, of Bhuga Trust, on three counts of rape, one of murder and another of robbery with aggravating circumstances.
Nkosi committed these offences from 2014 to 2018 in Bhuga Trust and Halfway Trust, KaBokweni.
He attacked a minor victim while she was on her way to the local shop. He dragged her to the nearby bush, raped and strangled her to death, National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) regional spokesperson Monica Nyuswa said.
In another incident, Nkosi, in March 2016, attacked a woman who was also on her way home. He robbed her of R400 and groceries and dragged her to the bushes, where he stabbed and raped her.
She, however, survived her ordeal.
Nkosi continued with his crime spree until December 2018, when he raped an adult woman who was on her way home from work.
The matter was reported to the police, and he was subsequently arrested and linked to other crimes through DNA.
Nkosi pleaded not guilty and claimed that the victims were prostitutes and that the minor victim was his girlfriend. The surviving victims all told the court how their nightmare ordeals had severely impacted their lives.
Director of Public Prosecutions advocate Nkebe Kanyane attributed this sentence to the efforts of the justice cluster in maintaining law and order in ensuring that justice prevailed for the victims of gender-based violence.
In another case heard by the Centane Regional Court in the Eastern Cape, a man who raped an 85-year-old granny was sentenced to an effective 26 years’ imprisonment.
Lunga Solani, 27, was sentenced to 20 years for rape, three years for housebreaking and three years for theft.
The crimes were committed on the night of July 21 last year in the Mandluntsha area in the district of Centane, said Luxolo Tyali, NPA regional spokesperson for the Eastern Cape Division.
The granny testified that she was preparing to go to bed when she went to the kitchen to switch off the lights. It was then that somebody kicked her door open and came inside.
The assailant pushed her to her bedroom, where he raped her after severely assaulting her with a stick, strangling and bashing her against the wall.
The elderly woman fought back, but due to her age, she got tired. Solani fell asleep after raping her, and only ran away to his nearby home afterwards, in the early hours of the morning.
In this case, too, the NPA is of the view that this sentence serves as the desired deterrent to would-be perpetrators of gender-based violence against their vulnerable relatives.
Meanwhile, Thamsanqa Somfaka, 35, who was earlier convicted of killing his pregnant girlfriend and mother of his two children, Samantha Zungu, is awaiting sentencing at the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, sitting in Palm Ridge.
On August 13 last year, Somfaka assaulted his heavily pregnant girlfriend with a stove poker.
It is said he had demanded that she give him R500 from the children’s social grant money.
When she refused, he assaulted and killed her.
He then told his neighbour, as well as Zungu’s mother, police and nurses, that he found her in bed in a pool of her own blood.
The court, however, rejected his version. Zungu’s family said on social media that they were happy about his conviction, and they are calling for justice to be done by way of a harsh sentence.
In earlier convicting him, Judge Tshifhiwa Maumela described Somfaka as a “dangerous man to society”.
Pretoria News