Pretoria – The High Court in Polokwane has sentenced 21-year-old Fanyane Piet Mokhawane to 20 years’ imprisonment after convicting him of rapes that occurred in the Maake policing area in 2019.
Police in Limpopo said Mokhawane utilised the same modus operandi on several of the victims. He targeted women while they were fetching wood in the bushes.
“He would threaten them with a knife and rape them. In another incident he broke into a certain house in Maake policing area and raped a woman aged 43,” said Limpopo police spokesperson Lieutenant-Colonel Mamphaswa Seabi.
“Rape cases were reported at the police station, and were assigned to Warrant Officer Mailula Mack Motalane, investigating officer of Tzaneen FCS (family violence, child protection and sexual offences unit) Sergeant Nkhensani Laura Sithole and Sergeant Ngwako Calvin Kgatle attached to provincial serial and electronics crimes investigations.”
Following investigations, the 21-year-old was positively linked to all the cases and was arrested.
In another case, rape and murder accused Mpho Godfrey Nemoghovhani, 40, was found guilty and sentenced to two life imprisonment by the High Court in Polokwane last week.
On June 27, 2009, Nemoghovhani was offered a place to sleep by the victim’s mother at her house in Khopo village.
“The victim's mother left her daughter, aged 11, with the accused who was (with) her colleague, sleeping in separate rooms. The same night, at about 9.30, the suspect noticed that the mother was not at home. He then raped the girl and strangled her to death,” said Lieutenant-Colonel Seabi.
Nemoghovhani was arrested on June 29, 2009.
IOL