Pretoria – The High Court in Mbombela has convicted 34-year-old serial rapist Thokozani Prince Mazibuko on four counts of rape, two counts of house robbery, one count of theft as well as one count of house robbery.
“Thokozani Prince Mazibuko was found guilty after the court was satisfied with the overwhelming evidence brought by the police against him. It is said that Mazibuko terrorised women in Nkomazi between 2013 and 2017,” said Mpumalanga police spokesperson, Brigadier Selvy Mohlala.
“The court heard how during the night of 15 January 2013, the accused with his accomplice, armed with a firearm, broke into a house in Langloop where they found a 16-year-old girl who was with her mother.”
They held both of them hostage, took a cellphone and raped the minor in front of her mom before they fled the scene.
On January 23, 2013, at night, Mohlala said Mazibuko and his two accomplices, armed with a firearm and a knife broke into another house in Boschfontein.
“They found a 16-year-old girl who was seven months pregnant. They took her mobile phone as well as a laptop charger before they dragged her out of the house and summoned a third suspect to join them. The three then ganged raped the pregnant young woman in the bushes,” Mohlala said.
Mazibuko and her accomplices fled the scene thereafter. The teenager barely walked to a nearby house to get help.
“The accused further broke into another house at Langloop during the night of 10 February 2013. He then found a young woman, aged 25 with her two children aged 1 and 7. The accused threatened his victim that he will stab her if she did not co-operate then unshamefully raped her in front of her children before he fled the scene,” Mohlala said.
“The accused further raped another woman, aged 19, at Boschfontein during the night of 11 January 2017. The female victim is said to have been walking in the street then came across the accused and his accomplice who were both armed with a firearm and a knife.”
They then took her money as well as her mobile phone then dragged her to nearby bushes.
“They then gang raped her before they fled the scene with the robbed items,” Mohlala said.
The incidents were all reported to the police and the dockets were assigned to the Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences (FCS) Unit in Tonga.
“The cases were prioritised by the investigators who spent sleepless night in an effort to make a breakthrough. They then connected the dots in the tour of their investigation and discovered that they were dealing with a serial rapist who was on the loose,” Mohlala said.
“It was not long before they arrested the accused at Langloop on 16 January, 2020, for a separate rape case which occurred in Matsulu which has not yet been finalised. The astute members managed to link the accused to the alluded incidents of rape, house robberies, house breaking and theft.”
When Mazibuko appeared in court, he was remanded in custody throughout the trial.
“Mazibuko never exposed his accomplices in the trial in which he was finally found guilty (on Tuesday). He is expected to be sentenced on Thursday, 1 August 2022,” Mohlala said.
Meanwhile, provincial commissioner of police in Mpumalanga, Lieutenant-General Semakaleng Daphney Manamela has “gladly” welcomed Mazibuko’s conviction.
"This conviction could not have come at a better time and we hope that he gets a maximum sentence so that a clear message is sent to perpetrators of gender-based violence,” Manamela said.
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