Pretoria - The Pretoria High Court sitting in Benoni Magistrate’s Court on Friday, sentenced Pastor Lucky Mfanivele Magagula to two life terms for the rape of minors between the ages of 3 and 9 years old.
The 36-year-old was found guilty of three counts of rape, five counts of exposing children to pornography, six counts of sexual assault, and four counts of exposing genitals to children and sexual grooming.
The judge also ordered Magagula be added to the national register for sexual offenders and that he be declared unfit to possess a firearm.
According to the National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson, Lumka Mahanjana, Magagula raped the 3-year-old after she came to his house to play with his relative. He confessed to raping the child during a family meeting.
“He raped the 8 and the 9 year old minors, and further sexually assaulted, and sexually groomed them together with three others between 2020 and 2021 when they would go to his house for choir practice and Bible study.”
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) said two victims who are siblings, were spotted with what the pastor was doing to them; the brother who saw them, went to tell his grandmother.
“When the grandmother enquired with the 4-year-old minor, she confessed and told her that was what the pastor was doing to them.”
The grandmother told the parents of the children who then apprehended Magagula and took him to the police station, he was subsequently ,arrested on 11 February 2021 and has been in custody since.
In delivering his sentence the judge agreed with the state and said, “the children were robbed of their childhood, Magagula exposed them to something that will affect them for the rest of their lives”.
IOL