Betrayal was the motive, court hears

AN ALLEGED serial rapist sexually assaulted women because he felt betrayed by his girlfriend, who cheated on him with his best friend and became pregnant.

This was the testimony of one of his alleged victims who was pregnant when she was allegedly raped by Lucky Simelane.

The woman told the high court sitting in Palm Ridge yesterday that he confessed to her and her brother’s girlfriend after he raped and robbed them at their Germiston flat in 2013.

He told her that he grew up in Tembisa and struggled in a life of poverty.

Simelane, 33, is accused of committing several brutal crimes from 2010 to 2013 in Ekurhuleni. He faces a string of charges, among them 14 counts of rape and 12 of kidnapping, robbery with aggravated circumstances and attempted murder.

The victim testified that during March 2013, he knocked on her door while she was at her flat with her brother’s girlfriend. He told her he was a security guard.

When she opened the door he pointed a firearm at them and demanded they lie on the bed while he robbed them of cellphones, cash and an electronic tablet.

He then raped her and her brother’s girlfriend. Afterwards he ate the pizza and chips they’d ordered for supper.

He told the women he had sexually assaulted them because his girlfriend had betrayed him.

He said he expected he would eventually get caught for his crimes.

The witness, who refused to make eye contact with Simelane, said the ordeal had traumatised her and her family and that “I wasn’t comfortable in public until he was caught”.

She said she took her son for a cleansing ceremony when he was born because she had been raped while pregnant with him.

The State alleges that Simelane would often accost women on the street, rob them and then rape them at either gun- or knifepoint. Sometimes he would kidnap them.