Taxi driver Sloti an 'unrepentant serial rapist'

East London taxi driver Siyabonga Sloti was described as a serial rapist as arguments ahead of sentencing were heard in the East London High Court on Friday.

On Thursday, Sloti, 29, was found guilty of raping two women in the East London area between 2015 and 2016.

He is already serving a 12-year sentence for raping another woman.

Sloti’s attorney, Hendrik Erasmus, in his mitigation for a lesser sentence, argued that a second suspect in one of the rape cases was nowhere to be found.

He said both Sloti’s parents had died when he was young, but he had tried to improve himself, and eventually passed matric when he was 20 years old.

“My client was willing to do good. He only was tricked by life’s challenges.

“We all know the difficulties we sometimes have to pass through,” Erasmus said.

He said Sloti had young children, two boys aged two and eight, who were solely dependent on him because their mother was unemployed.

However, prosecutor Sibusiso Mgenge argued: “This was a seriously degrading act to both his victims, which is now cancerous and endemic in our country.

“We need to uproot it in ways possible” Mgenge said.

“We have a duty as executors of the law to ensure that no-one in this democracy infringes on the rights of the other and that our people are protected at all times.

“When the accused and his conspirators left one of the victims, they mercilessly threw her out of the car to further expose her to more danger and possible rape again.

“This court needs to send a clear message to the public that there’s zero tolerance of injustice in our country” he said.

He also highlighted that both victims were emotionally.

“It is high time to take women seriously. Their ′no’ must be respected,” said Mgenge.

“All of this proves that the accused is a serial rapist.

“All of his actions are premeditated and he remains unrepentant. He has not shown remorse, even during the defence’s arguments. I haven’t found a single word which suggests that the accused is apologetic for his actions and willing to apologise to his victims.”

Siyabulela Nombembe, 48, a member of Buffalo City’s task team on men’s issues and the chair of the men’s forum in the Eastern Cape, attended the proceedings, and was impressed by the prosecutor’s closing arguments.

“It is high time that we get people like Mgenge in our justice system. We are optimistic that we’ll win the fight against gender violence in our country,” Nombembe said.

We have a duty as executors of the law to ensure that no-one in this democracy infringes on the rights of the other and that our people are protected at all times