DURBAN - The Inkanyezi Regional Court in Eshowe sentenced a 30-year-old man to three life terms in prison last week, for raping three teenage girls who were on their way home from school in 2018.
Sibongiseni Fano Mthethwa also received 15 years for business robbery.
Police said Mthethwa raped the three 15-year-old girls in the Mpaphala area in Mbongolwan on September 15, 2018.
Spokesperson Captain Nqobile Gwala said the girls were on their way home from school where they had just finished a maths extra lesson when Mthethwa approached them.
“While they were walking back to their homesteads, they were apprehended by the accused. He forced them into the sugar cane plantation where they were threatened with a firearm and a knife. They were held in the sugar cane fields by the accused who raped them,” she said.
Gwala said that after the girls were raped, they managed to flee.
They told their parents what had happened.
Charges of rape were opened with the Mbongolwane SAPS and the docket was transferred to Eshowe Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit who took over the investigation.
Later that year, on December 15, Mthethwa and four other men entered a bottle store at the same area in Mbongolwane and held up the owner.
Gwala said the group held the owner at gunpoint while they stole cash and alcohol before fleeing the scene.
A case of business robbery was opened.
Gwala said police arrested Mthethwa in January 2019 and he was tried in court.
She said Mthethwa made several court appearances until his sentencing on June 24this year.
He was declared unfit to possess a firearm and his name was placed on the Sexual Offenders Register.
THE MERCURY