A monster lurking in the shadows, attacking, robbing and raping girls, was how Deputy Judge President Patricia Goliath described the modus operandi of Cape Town serial rapist, Sikhangele Mki, 34, in the Western Cape High Court yesterday.
“It falls into the category of the most serious cases this court has ever dealt with. The crimes were heinous in the extreme.”
Goliath sentenced Mki to 15 life terms and an additional 120 years, to run concurrently.
Mki had pleaded guilty to 84 charges earlier this month, which included 30 counts of rape, 27 of kidnapping, 12 of robbery with aggravating circumstances, and four of assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
In his plea, he admitted to raping some of his victims more than once. Nine were under the age of 16, and the youngest victim was just 11.
Mki committed the crimes between 2011 and 2015, and his victims were attacked between the areas of Khayelitsha and Delft.
In his plea he said: “During the evenings, or early mornings in question, I would follow the victims, grab hold of them, threaten them at knifepoint by holding a knife to their necks and would demand money and cellular phones.
"I would rob them of any money they had and take their cellular phones. I would take them to an isolated place and rape them, to wit, unlawfully and intentionally have non-
consensual intercourse with the victims”.
Despite Mki taking the stand and briefly apologising to his victims, Judge Goliath found there were no substantial or compelling reasons to deviate from minimum sentence legislation.
Victim impact assessments had described the devastating physical and psychological effects on them.
The breakthrough in the investigation happened when Mki served 11 months for assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm in 2014. In terms of the recently passed DNA Act, police collect the DNA samples of convicted offenders and run them through their system. In Mki’s case, this was what linked him to the rapes.
A police psychologist report, handed in to court for sentencing purposes, highlighted the fact that serial rapists cannot be rehabilitated.
It also pointed to Mki’s predilection for young girls, stating he should also be regarded as a paedophile.
Judge Goliath ordered his name be added to the national sex offenders register. She also ordered that he be given psychological treatment in prison and be placed in a sex offenders programme.
Outside court, relatives of the victims celebrated the lengthy sentence.
Provincial NPA spokesperson Eric Ntabazalila said it was a welcome sentence.
“The accused was brazen, he even dragged one victim behind a police station.”