Gauteng serial rapist convicted on 28 charges

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Published Aug 26, 2016

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Pretoria - A serial rapist who tied a noose around one of his victim’s neck and dragged her behind his taxi for 165 metres, until she lost consciousness, will be evaluated by a panel of psychiatrists to declare whether he should be declared a dangerous person.

If declared so, he will be sentenced to an indefinite period behind bars, or until he is again declared fit by psychiatrists to one day be let loose into the community.

This emerged on Friday, when the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, convicted Thulani Dhlakute on 28 charges – the bulk of which is rape. He also strangled one of his victims to death with a shoelace and left her body in a veld.

The star witness in the trial was one of the man’t victims, an 11-year-old, who bravely testified against him.

While he denied all the charges and said it was a case of mistaken identity, the child and the other victims were all adamant that he was their rapist.

Dhlakute was also connected to all the rapes via DNA evidence.

Judge Louis Vorster said he did not only prey on defenceless women who boarded his taxi or who walked in the streets, but he also robbed them of all their belongings before he brutally raped them.

In some cases he overpowered two women at a time and raped each repeatedly, switching from the one to the other.

The serial rapist’s reign of terror from e-Malahleni and Pretoria North to Soweto started in November 2013 and ended in December the following year, when he was eventually arrested.

He was out on parole after serving only a few years of two previous rape convictions, when he once again pounced on women.

The prosecution called him a menace, who had to be permanently removed from society. The only offering his lawyer could make to the court was that “he did not act like a normal human being”.

Dhlakute showed no emotion as he listened to his fate being discussed while sitting in the dock, where he was surrounded by several armed Correctional Services guards.

The prosecution said there is about a three-month backlog on beds at psychiatric institutions and that he could thus not be evaluated at this stage. It was suggested to impose 13 life sentences on him, which would ensure that he will not again walk the streets.

But Judge Vorster said it was advisable to wait for a bed and have him evaluated, to ascertain his mental status.

Dhlakute will again be brought before court in three months’ time.

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