Cape Town - The key to the successful arrest and prosecution of a dangerous serial rapist lay in the dedication and commitment of a Western Cape policeman who went beyond the call of duty.
Lead investigator Nziwetu Sidinana, 43, and his team of specialists took a year to gather enough evidence to ensure the Western Cape High Court could hand down nine life terms to Mthunzi Hlomane, known as the Rhodes Rapist.
Hlomane targeted six UCT students, who had either been jogging or heading to the gym between November 19 last year and February 4 this year. Court papers revealed he had a penchant for women with braids styled after his favourite porn stars and would chose victims to play out his fantasies.
He would rob, beat, kidnap and rape them, subjecting them to such trauma the National Prosecuting Authority opted to enter into a plea bargain instead of subjecting the victims to recalling their assaults in court.
It would be the cellphone of Hlomane’s first victim that would lead investigators to him. The investigator attached to the provincial Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit said Hlomane was an expert in hiding in plain sight. “He was pretending to be a student when he attacked his first victim. But at the time, we looked at everyone as a potential suspect. In that vein, we covered the entire campus in search of him.
“We picked up signals on upper and lower campus and near Rhodes Memorial so we knew he knew the area well. But then we asked ourselves, where does he charge his phone?’ and this made us consider students,” said Sidinana.
Hlomane’s tendency to reach out to his victims via a cellphone call also gave police insight to his personality, and with that, they could profile him. The police then devised a plan to go undercover as a student heading to the gym at sunset.
“We knew he was hiding in that forest, he would watch his victims for days before he struck. We knew we needed to arrest him quickly, the way in which he was carrying out his crimes was escalating. His last victim he held for 24 hours and the other he beat severely,” said Sidinana.
“When we first came across him, he was shocked. He said he was traumatised. He told investigators he did not know what happened. He tried to deny it.”
Cape Argus