‘Why didn’t Satanists help him?’

05/08/2015. Wendy Masango mother of Raipela who is one of the victims of convicted serial kille Themba Vilakazi at Pretoria Magistrate Court. Picture: Oupa Mokoena

05/08/2015. Wendy Masango mother of Raipela who is one of the victims of convicted serial kille Themba Vilakazi at Pretoria Magistrate Court. Picture: Oupa Mokoena

Published Aug 6, 2015

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Pretoria - “If he was a Satanist and these things existed, why didn’t they help him get out of jail? He is just an animal; he doesn’t belong with people.”

These were the words of Wendy Masango, mother of 11-year-old Raipela, killed by the convicted serial killer and self-confessed devil worshipper, Themba Vilakazi, 33, of Soshanguve.

Masango, of Proclamation Hill, told the Pretoria News she was dissatisfied with the sentence. “I wanted him to get the death penalty… An eye for an eye,” she said after Vilakazi was sentenced to two 18-year terms for two murders by acting Judge Daniel Mogotsi in the high court in Pretoria sitting in the Pretoria North Magistrate’s Court, as well as a life term for the third killing he was convicted of.

She said until the beginning of the court case she had always thought about the person who killed her son and wanted to ask him why he would kill an innocent child.

Vilakazi said he killed Masango’s son, plus two others, because he was a Satanist. “I receive instructions from the beast who to kill. I am a Satanist,” he said of his 2005 murders.

Vilakazi stabbed all his victims. Next to one of the bodies, he had written “7 left” and when questioned, he said there were seven more people he had to murder.

He was already serving a 15-year sentence for rape, which will not run concurrently with the murder sentences.

In his guilty plea, Vilakazi said: “There are two kinds of people on Earth; those bearing the mark of the lamb, and those with the beast’s sign. I receive instructions from the beast on who to kill.

“I received instructions from the underworld to kill the three people which I then complied with.”

He was led into court wearing a black and blue tracksuit jacket and a flowery floppy hat.

He has the numbers 666 tattooed across his forehead. As he walked into the courtroom, he greeted everyone before sitting down and waiting for proceedings to begin.

On July 23, 2005, Vilakazi killed an unknown man on the railway line at the Belle Ombre plaza, near the intersection of Paul Kruger and Boom streets. He said he was on a morning jog when the “underworld” told him to kill the man.

Michael Mokaba was killed on August 11, the same year. He apparently spotted Vilakazi and seven other people practising voodoo in a bush near the Pretoria zoo.

Mokaba tried to run away, but was trapped by the eight people and stabbed to death.

He was found with multiple wounds to his neck and chest.

Judge Mogotsi sentenced Vilakazi to life in prison for this murder, saying it was premeditated.

Raipela died on November 11. Vilakazi said he was contacted by the underworld around 1pm on the day.

“The underworld indicated that they have identified a person bearing the sign of the lamb. I left the game that I was playing and followed the directions they gave me.

“They instructed me to destroy him; to kill him as he was one of the Messiah group,” Vilakazi said.

He said he asked how he should kill Raipela and was directed to a shop to buy a knife, which he used to stab the young boy in the neck. He left the knife next to the body.

Vilakazi said the voices from the underworld also directed him to kill the unknown man “because he bore the mark of the lamb”.

According to Brigadier Gerard Labuschagne, head of the SAPS investigative psychology forensic services, it was proven that Vilakazi faked his mental illness and that members of the occult killings investigative team had disproved his theory of being a Satanist.

He said Vilakazi was arrested because he acted suspiciously when he saw a police officer on foot patrol. When the officer stopped and searched him, he was found in possession of drugs.

While Vilakazi was being taken to the police station to get booked, a young man recognised him as the same man who had raped him.

The DNA which was taken for the rape case linked him to the murders of the three victims.

In his pre-sentencing report , Labuschagne said it was his opinion “that the accused currently posed and will continue to pose a real and significant threat to adult and child males in society”.

Judge Mogotsi ordered Vilakazi to attend a sex offender programme in jail and psychotherapy as well.

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Pretoria News

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