The High Court in Mbombela has found a 34-year-old man guilty for raping four girls including a pregnant teenage girl in a period of four years.
Thokozani Prince Mazibuko was found guilty on four counts of rape, two counts of house robber, one count of theft as well as one count of house robbery.
“Thokozani Prince Mazibuko was found guilty after the court was satisfied with the overwhelming evidence brought by police against him. It is said that Mazibuko terrorised women in Nkomazi between 2013 and 2017,” said Brigadier Selvy Mohlala, the Mpumalanga police spokesperson.
“The court heard how during the night of 15 January 2013, the accused with his accomplice, armed with a firearm, broke into a house in Langloop where they found a 16-year-old girl who was with her mother.”
They held both of them hostage, raped the girl in front of her mother and stole a mobile phone.
Later that same month on January 23, 2013, at night, Mazibuko and two other accomplices, armed with a knife and a firearm broke into another house in Boschfontein.
“They found a 16-year-old girl who was seven months pregnant. They took her mobile phone as well as a laptop charger before they dragged her out tot the house and summoned a third suspect to join them. The three men gang raped the pregnant young woman in the bushes,” Mohlala said.
Mazibuko and his accomplices fled the scene immediately after raping they pregnant teenager. She was barely able to walk to a nearby house for help after the incident.
The following month, Mazibuko broke into a house in Langeloop, where he found a 25-year-old woman with her children, aged seven and one. He raped the woman in front of her children before he fled the scene.
In January 2017, Mazibuko raped a 19-year-old woman in Boschfontein after robbing her while she was walking alone in the street. Mazibulko and his accomplice robbed the teenage girl of cash and her cellphone. They dragged her to the nearby bushes and raped her.
Police arrested Mazibuko in January 2020 in connection with a separate rape case in Matsulu, which had not been finalised. He was then linked to the four cases.
He is expected to be sentenced on Thursday.
Source: News24, Times Live, IOL, image from IOL: SAPS