Rapist jailed for 25 years

A WILLOWVALE rapist has been sentenced to 25 years imprisonment for raping a 15-year-old girl two years ago.

Bhuntsulwana Maginindane, 39, was found guilty of the crime by the Willowvale Regional Magistrate’s Court last week.

Butterworth police spokesman Captain Jackson Manatha said Maginindane had gone to the victim’s homestead in Gosani village in Willowvale in 2016, where he found his victim asleep with her two sisters.

After he gained entry the two other girls managed to escape through the door.

“Unfortunately the 15-year-old girl was caught and she was severely assaulted by the accused, who then raped her before leaving,” said Manatha. “The victim managed to identify the accused, as he is from the same village. A case was opened at Willowvale police station.”

Eastern Cape provincial police commissioner Lieutenant General Liziwe Ntshinga said Maginindane’s hefty sentence should send a strong message to would-be rapists.

● Police confiscated dagga worth R30 000 in Mbizana this weekend.

The seizure comes just a week after dagga worth R2.6-million was confiscated in two rural homesteads in a Mbizana village.

KwaBhaca police spokeswoman Captain Edith Mjoko told the Dispatch yesterday that a police team received a tip-off from villagers in nearby Mzamba.

“When they searched the man’s homestead they found R25 000 worth of dagga stashed in paper bags,” she said. The man, 51, was arrested and charged with possession of dagga.

In a stop-and-search operation in Mbizana, a bus ferrying passengers from town to a local village was searched and a 32-year-old woman with dagga worth R5 000 inside her bag was arrested. Mjoko said the two would appear in the Mbizana Magistrate’s Court this week.

● Four illegal shebeens were raided and closed down in Mbizana, Ntabankulu and KwaBhaca on the weekend. Mjoko said two were in Mbizana and alcohol worth around R15 000 had been confiscated by police during the raids. She said the owners were fined R1 500. —