Long jail time for serial rapist

A Limpopo parolee accused of raping several women in the Sekhukhune area of Limpopo before robbing them of their valuables was given two life sentences by the Limpopo High Court in Polokwane.

Provincial commissioner of the South African Police Service (Saps) in Limpopo, Lieutenant-General Nneke Ledwaba, has welcomed the sentence.

The rapist, Khutjo Donald Shai, had been terrorising the communities of Burgersfort and Mecklenburg between 2013 and 2015, the court heard during the trial.

Shai was handed two life sentences plus 10 years behind bars for a variety of crimes.

These included rape, housebreaking with the intent to rape, kidnapping, assault and robbery with aggravating circumstances.

During the execution of these crimes, Shai was out on parole for a robbery committed in 2015.

The court said during sentencing that on January 13, 2013, Shai broke into a house at ga-Kgwete village in the Mecklenburg policing area outside Burgersfort and threatened an 18-year-old woman and her sibling.

He forced the woman to accompany him to an abandoned house where he raped her several times before fleeing the scene.

In the same area on December 23, 2013, he forced a 47-year-old woman into the bushes next to ga-Kgwete village where he repeatedly raped and assaulted her.

He then fled the scene with her cellphone and money.

“On April 3, 2015, Shai lured an 18-year old woman to a house at ga-Mashishi village where he repeatedly raped her.

“The ordeal lasted until the following day,” the court heard during sentencing.

The provincial commissioner has applauded the sterling work done by members of the unit at Burgersfort specialising in cases related to family violence, child protection and sexual offences.

“These crimes tear communities and families apart and have no place here,” said Ledwaba. “They need to be stamped out.

“This will go a long way to ensuring perpetrators of these kind of offences face the full might of the law.”