Mother helps police detain sex pest suspect
No mercy for remorseless serial rapist
THE 23-YEAR-OLD man allegedly responsible for kidnapping, injuring and repeatedly raping an 18-year-old pupil earlier this month has been arrested – with his victim’s mother instrumental in tracking him down.
On Friday, The Star reported how Jeppe police were hunting for the man who kidnapped the teenager and kept her in a filthy backroom of a home in Bezuidenhout Valley. There, he sexually and physically assaulted her for hours.
He had allegedly been stalking Maria* and two of her friends for weeks.
On Saturday September 12, he approached the young woman and apparently choked her until she lost consciousness. When she came to, she found herself in an unfamiliar room and her captor allegedly spent the next day-and-a-half raping her and cutting her with a knife whenever she tried to resist.
He let Maria leave the room in the early hours of the Monday morning.
At first, she was too afraid to approach the police because he had threatened to kill her and her family if she ever spoke about the incident.
However, her family and friends insisted on opening a case on Monday last week. When police went to the property where Maria had been kept, the suspect had fled.
The Star was in contact with the Jeppe police during the week, with officers wanting a photo of the suspect published in the media in order to ask the public to help track him down. The photo was never sent – police claimed they were struggling to find a proper image.
But after more than a week of waiting for investigators to find the alleged rapist, Maria’s mother Elizabeth* took matters into her own hands. When she had visited the house where her daughter was raped, she had met the man’s parents and uncle.
Elizabeth claims the man’s parents begged her to convince Maria to drop the charges, allegedly even offering bribes. Elizabeth refused.
On Tuesday, she told the parents she would be willing to drop the charges if she got a chance to speak to the man and his parents in person. The man resurfaced, and he and his parents agreed to meet Elizabeth at her home in Germiston.
When the family arrived and the man allegedly became verbally abusive, Elizabeth ordered a weeping Maria to leave the house for her own safety, and told her to contact the police. The man was arrested a short while later.
“I’m so glad he was arrested. I couldn’t wait for the police any longer,” said Elizabeth.
Jeppe police spokesman Warrant Officer Richard Munyai confirmed the arrest, and said the man would appear in court tomorrow.
*Not their real names BY DAY, Dakalo Munyai, 27, was a friendly man transporting schoolchildren to and from school.
By night, he was a sadist who prowled the streets together with an accomplice, kidnapping women, robbing them, badly assaulting them and raping them both vaginally and anally. His victims were between 21 and 52.
Yesterday, Acting Judge Dario Dasio in the high court in Joburg said Munyai was a danger that needed to be removed from society and slapped him with 154 years and five life sentences for the crimes he committed.
He also ordered the 154 years to run concurrently with the life sentences. But each life sentence must run on its own and not concurrently with each other, he said.
Judge Dasio said there was a time lapse between when the offences were committed, which meant there had been more than enough time for Munyai to reflect on his actions.
“There is no reason for the court to order that the life sentences run concurrently. He is a serial rapist and has shown no remorse. The injures on the vaginas, lips and anuses of his victims showed his sadistic streak. He even broke the leg of one of his victims.”
Munyai and his accomplice targeted women near Leratong taxi rank in Kagiso, Mogale City, pretending to walk them to the taxi and protect them from criminals.
Munyai’s first recorded attack was in August 2011 and the last one in August 2014. He was arrested a month later. Judge Dasio said Munyai’s victims had trusted him but he breached that trust by viciously attacking them. He said the attacks were motivated by financial gain and sexual gratification.
Describing the brutal way in which the victims were assaulted and later raped, Dasio said they were now left with permanent scars and trauma.
One resigned from her job as she was unable to cope with the attack and turned to alcohol to mask the pain. Another stopped talking and neglected her child. Others were depressed and still struggling to cope.
Judge Dasio dismissed Munyai’s application to appeal against his conviction but granted his application to appeal the sentencing.
Victims’ extensive injuries showed his sadistic streak