Pretoria - “With this sentence South Africans will sleep better at night,” a judge remarked as he sentenced a serial rapist to 11 life terms as well as more than 700 years in prison.
The man dubbed “the smiling rapist” - Mpumelo Hlungwani, 32 - did not show emotion as he walked down the steps of the holding cells after sentencing. His victims, who packed thepublic gallery, shouted after him ”go pig”.
“He totally ruined my life. I might as well be dead,” one of the victims told a social worker.
She was one of more than 30 women who were raped by the Zimbabwean citizen between January 2008 and September 2014.
The 32-year-old showed a total disregard for his victims and ensured that he made eye contact with them while they were reliving their traumatic experiences in court.
While testifying, many of these young victims burst into tears and the court had to adjourn on several occasions for them to compose themselves. But Hlungwani did not show any compassion - he looked them in the eye and smiled.
This prompted Judge Tony Thobane of the high court in Pretoria to say “the court cannot turn a blind eye that it brought joy to your heart when your victims broke down”.
Some of Hlungwani’s victims described how they begged him for mercy when he overpowered them and dragged them to remote spots. He turned a deaf ear, they said, and simply went ahead and raped, robbed and assaulted them violently.
One young woman who was hit several times on her head with a brick told the court the permanent scar on her head reminded her time and again of this callous, brutal man.
His victims sighed with relief on Friday as it became evident he would never again be able to walk the streets preying on unsuspecting women.
“Now we will be able to sleep again,” a relieved victim said.
A victim, raped twice and held for an entire night in a deserted field, said she had forgiven him.
Hlungwani pleaded not guilty to 96 charges, including 36 of rape. He was convicted on 95 charges after the victim of one of the rapes refused to testify. In some cases he raped his victims twice. Two of his victims were children - aged 13 and 14. One of them was raped in front of her mother.
Two women were raped while on their way to work with their babies on their backs. Another was raped in front of her 5-year-old child.
He never wore a condom and was linked via DNA evidence to each rape. Although he did not have a defence, Hlungwani made sure his victims were put through the trauma of reliving their ordeals in court, prosecutor Juliette Makgwatha told the court.
Hlungwani mostly pounced on his victims early in the mornings or at night. He also targeted women who were walking together and raped both of them.
“You lurked in the dark corners and targeted your victims. It did not matter to you that some were in the company of males. You wanted to rape them and you achieved what you had set out to do,” the judge said.
He commented that the 13-year-old victim was gang-raped three times. A male accomplice who on occasion went on the raping spree with Hlungwani is still at large.
Pretoria News