Youngest serial rapist throws tantrum in court

SOUTH Africa’s youngest serial rapist has been sentenced to another three life sentences plus an additional 45 years in prison for his crimes.

He was finally convicted for the rape of all but one of his victims. While he’s now in his mid-20s, Mpho Rakgwale was just 17 years old when he began his rape spree that shattered the lives of at least 22 women and children.

From 2007 until 2012 when he was arrested, Rakgwale would kidnap teenagers and pre-teens in and around Dobsonville, Soweto, often taking them to a graveyard and using either a gun or knife to force them to perform sexual acts.

Rakgwale is also charged with another rape count in the Protea Magistrate’s Court, with trial set down for later this year.

In 2014, shortly after prosecutor Shubnum Singh revealed that the State had DNA evidence linking Rakgwale to 17 of his victims, he pleaded guilty on 61 charges of rape, kidnapping, robbery and possession of illegal firearms and ammunition.

At the high court sitting in Palm Ridge, Judge George Maluleke sentenced Rakgwale to six life sentences and 232 additional years in prison. However, Rakgwale insisted he was not guilty of the rapes of five other women.

After a lengthy trial, Rakgwale was convicted on similar fact evi- dence for these other incidents in November last year. When he was found guilty of nine more charges of rape and a further three of kidnapping, Rakgwale was fuming in the dock. So angry was the young man that when it came to his sentencing proceedings last week, he swore at presiding Judge Solly Sithole, saying he would refuse to attend the court proceedings. He then stomped back down to his cell beneath the Randburg Magistrate’s Court.

Yesterday, Rakgwale once again refused to appear in court, sending a letter with his lawyer, Mlungisi Buthelezi, saying he did not wish to attend in his current emotional state. Clearly unimpressed, Judge Sithole allowed the sentencing to continue, choosing to chastise Rakgwale for his actions in his absence.

The judge said Rakgwale deserved a harsh sentence, not only to act as a deterrent to himself, but also to anyone who believed they could get away with such abominable acts.

Judge Sithole then sentenced Rakgwale to life sentences for three of the victims, with a another life imprisonment because the victim was only 14 years old at the time.

For the other two victims, Rakgwale was sentenced to a further 15 years each, with an additional five years for each of the three kidnapping convictions.

Only one of the young women Rakgwale had attacked arrived at the court yesterday, giving only a hint of a relieved smile after the conviction.