Johannesburg - Here he is, the youngest serial rapist in the country known to the National Prosecuting Authority.
Convicted serial rapist Mpho Rakgwale started his raping spree in 2007, when he was just 17 years old.
He was arrested, but the case was withdrawn due to technicalities.
On Thursday, he reached the end of the road.
Judge George Maluleke in the High Court in Joburg found him guilty on 61 charges including 21 rapes, 17 kidnapping, six unlawful possession of firearms, five aggravated robberies, six unlawful possession of ammunition and six robbery charges.
Rakgwale received six life sentences and a total of 232 years’ imprisonment.
The sentences will run concurrently, which means he will serve one life sentence.
On Thursday, during Rakgwale’s sentencing, Judge Maluleke outlined in court how Rakgwale had carried out a series of crimes with a consistent modus operandi.
During his raping spree, he would in some instances make girls lie on tombstones as he raped them in a graveyard.
In other incidents, he would force his victims to perform stripteases or imitate the moans of a pornographic movie.
He used either a firearm or a knife to rob the girls of money and cellphones before raping them.
Rakgwale had previously told the court that he did not use a condom in many of the cases, and smoked dagga before violating some of them.
Some of the victims, aged between 13 and 20, were virgins. Others were raped repeatedly. In one instance, he had gang-raped a 13-year-old girl with two or three of his friends.
In 2010, he lured a 14-year-old under false pretences to the stadium in Dobsonville and ordered her to take off her pants and underwear before he raped her.
The spree continued until 2012, when he was arrested.
Judge Maluleke read out the effect the deeds had on the victims. None of the girls had undergone counselling for the traumatic experience.
Others dropped out of school, while others failed grades. Some of the victims had exhibited a strong resolve to go on.
Judge Maluleke said: “What is clear is that they all suffered and continue to suffer serious and psychological effects.”
The reports from a psychologist and a probation officer who interviewed Rakgwale were also read out in court.
In one report, the psychologist said Rakgwale satisfied all the requirements of a serial rapist and presented a high level of risk to females of the same age. And the fact that Rakgwale had also committed other crimes alongside the rape attacks meant he would be more difficult to rehabilitate.
The probation officer, Annette Vergeer, also agreed in her report.
Rakgwale had spoken openly with the officer about his escapades. He would manipulate and threaten the girls, claiming they would be harmed if he did not protect them.
Vergeer said he did not act in a childlike manner when he committed the sexual offences. They were planned meticulously.
She said the probability of rehabilitation was so poor as to be virtually non-existent.
Judge Maluleke said nearly all the attacks would qualify for life sentences except the first one, which took place when Rakgwale was underage.
Even though Rakgwale watched his mother and brother get strangled and killed by his stepfather when he was 11 years old, Vergeer’s report said that incident could not have led to serial rape.
But Judge Maluleke said Rakgwale remained a human being.
“Even in the heart of darkness there is some kindness. The need for mercy remains forever there,” he said.
The judge said it was for this reason that Rakgwale would not receive a life sentence for every rape he was guilty of.
Some of the statements and reports read out in court indicated that the serial rapist had not shown any feelings of remorse or regret, and had boasted about how he had picked out his victims carefully.
One of his victims said she would never be able to forgive him, even if she were “offered a million dollars”.
He had made her feel cheap and dirty and her soul would never heal, even if he were sentenced to life in prison, she added.
Rakgwale was poker-faced throughout the sentencing and hugged a man believed to be a friend before he was taken to the cells.
The victims and their parents hugged and smiled outside the court.
“We had expected something far less, so we are happy with what we got. We respect the law and the way it is teaching men how to treat children,” a mother of one of the victims said.
She wished the law could apply to all men who committed such crimes, she added.
“I am so relieved that we will never see him again. As parents, we must show support for our children by coming to court and fighting for them,” she said.
The Star