South Africa’s notorious serial rapists

Victims include young girls and teenagers

Here are some of SA’s worst serial rapists:

● Mongezi Jinxela, 39, was found guilty on 220 charges of rape, kidnapping, robbery and assault in December 2007.

He raped 57 women he lured to deserted places. His crime spree spanned 10 years until he was arrested in August 2004. He was sentenced to 55 life sentences.

● In 2013, a man known as the “Birthday Rapist” was sentenced to 39 life terms for 39 rapes by the Johannesburg magistrate’s court.

Mlungisi Mtshali was sentenced to another 212 years on more than 70 additional charges of sexual assault, kidnapping and theft.

He was dubbed the “Birthday Rapist” because he told his victims it was his birthday and invited them to celebrate with him at a nearby restaurant or bar. He would later ask them to accompany him, in a metered taxi, to fetch his sister or a friend in Hillbrow or central Johannesburg, where he lured the women into a hotel room and raped them.

● SA’s youngest serial rapist, a 17-year-old teenager, was handed a 30-year prison sentence after he was found guilty of raping three boys aged eight to 10 in Katlehong, on the East Rand, in 2020.

● Sello Abram Mapunya, who raped and robbed 56 women across Pretoria over a period of five years, was convicted on 71 charges, which included 31 of rape, in May 2021. Mapunya began his crime spree in 2014.

His modus operandi included breaking into shacks and RDP houses in the mornings armed with a knife or firearm and forcing himself onto his victims.

● Sikhangele Mki, 34, from Cape Town was handed 15 life sentences and 120 years behind bars for attacking, robbing and raping women.

He was convicted for 84 crimes, including 30 counts of rape and 27 of kidnapping. His rape victims were 30 women aged between 11 and 28.

He committed the crimes between 2011 and 2015, between Khayelitsha and Delft.