Compiled by Zama Nene
l Christopher Mhlengwa Zikode, one of KwaZulu-Natal’s most notorious serial killers, could potentially be eligible for parole.
In 1997, Zikode was given five life sentences after he was found guilty of 21 charges of murder, rape, indecent assault and housebreaking with intent to rape or murder.
He terrorised the residents of Donnybrook Township between April and September 1995. Many of his killings were conducted execution-style and Zikode would kill his rape victims and mutilate them. He would break into people’s homes and confront them in the dead of night.
During the early hours of June 24, 1995, Zikode repeatedly raped a woman and her nine-year-old daughter on the same bed.
The following month, he broke into Zanele Khumalo’s bedroom while she was asleep. He shot her in the head, then dragged her to a nearby plantation and raped her.
These are just a few of the many atrocities Zikode has committed.
l In 1995 during a three-week spree Bongani Mfeka, another KwaZulu-Natal serial killer, who preyed on women commuters at the Kranskop taxi rank, was sentenced to four life sentences after pleading guilty to four murders, an attempted murder, rape and theft.
Mfeka would lure women from the taxi rank and promise them work.
He then would lead them to a secluded forest, strangle and sometimes rape them.
Mfeka confessed in detail how he murdered the women and pointed out where he had left the bodies, which were sometimes found in a state of decomposition.
He said he strangled the women because he had lied about finding them jobs, because he was unemployed himself.
l Dhevaraj Naidoo, a former teacher, was sentenced to death in 1994 but had his death sentence replaced with life in 1999 by the Supreme Court of Appeal.
Naidoo was jailed for the murder of his wife, Amrita and daughter, Prashana, 7.
He was said to be a sole beneficiary of his wife’s insurance policies, totalling R1 million.
Naidoo, too, is potentially eligible for parole.
l Bheki Mazibuko laughed as the judge handed down his sentence of life imprisonment for the murder of Durban businessman, Victor du Preez, and a colleague, David Ibbetson, in 1994.
The two had gone to check repair work in KwaMashu when they were robbed by Mazibuko and an accomplice, Nhlanhla Mlambo. Du Preez was assaulted, sworn at, pinned down and shot in the head.
Mazibuko and Mlambo then drove away with Ibbetson’s car.
Soon after, they were arrested and found with possessions belonging to Ibbetson and Du Preez.
Mlambo was sentenced to 25 years. Mazibuko and Mlambo had shown no remorse for their crime and were labelled a threat to society.
l Nkosikhona Gasela and Thembelani Sibiya were sentenced to life imprisonment in 1999 for the murder of Kranskop timber farmer Friedel Redinger, former mayor of Kranskop.
Redinger was driving through his plantation when he was stopped by Gasela, ordered to get out of his vehicle and was shot through the back of his head with a home-made shotgun.
Redinger was robbed of his car, farm radio and cellphone.
Sibiya and Gasela were members of the community police forum at the time of the murder.