Taxi driver accused linked to 4 more rapes

AN iphela sedan taxi driver accused of robbing and raping a 24-year-old Zwelitsha passenger in November has apparently been linked to four more rapes through his DNA.

He appeared in the East London Magistrate’s Court on Friday to face the new charges.

Police confirmed yesterday that Siyabonga Sloti, 28, of Scenery Park, will face four additional counts of robbery and rape.

The crimes are alleged to have taken place in Berlin, near Duncan Village and two in Scenery Park between 2015 and 2016.

Sloti was denied bail in December. He was arrested after the complainant gave police a vehicle’s registration plate number.

Sloti is set to apply for bail for the new charges later this week.

According to information from a police source, the state will try to prove that:

● In December 2015 Sloti raped and robbed a woman in her 20s in Scenery Park after he had given her a ride from Amalinda.

The woman, who worked for a store, had just knocked off work at around 8.30pm on December 18. He allegedly raped her at knife point and stole her cellphone;

● In 2016 a woman in her 20s was picked up by Sloti at a hiking spot in King William’s Town and, after pretending to take another route to do some shopping, he took her into the bush and raped her a number of times before robbing her of her cellphone and R450;

● In June 2016, a 20-year-old woman was attacked, raped and robbed at knife-point by the accused who was on foot.

He allegedly attacked her as she walked through a bushy area towards the train station near Wilsonia; and that

● A woman of 24,who was picked up by Sloti in his taxi near Buffalo City College in November 2016, was robbed and raped by him at knife point near a butchery on the Black Road.

The police source said such incidents were now minimal in the area since Sloti’s arrest.

However, last week a 20-year-old Mdantsane sedan taxi driver, Sibongile Mtyobisi, together with his co-accused, Asemahle Nyakumbi, 19, were denied bail by the East London bail court.

They were arrested late last month and are accused of kidnapping, raping, stabbing nine times and robbing a 34-year-old female passenger who had taken the taxi from the East London CBD to Scenery Park. —