Pretoria - A devil-worshipping serial killer will be sentenced on Wednesday in the High Court in Pretoria, after pleading guilty to three murder charges on Monday.
Themba Vilakazi, 33, from Soshanguve, first killed a man in Pretoria on July 23, 2005, court papers state. The victim died of multiple stab wounds to the chest.
In August of the same year, Vilakazi stabbed to death Michael Mokaba, who died of wounds to his neck and chest.
Then on November 11, Aaron Fortune Rapela Masango was stabbed in the neck by Vilakazi.
The three men’s murders went unsolved until 2012 when Vilakazi was convicted of raping an 18-year-old man. DNA obtained from that rape case linked Vilakazi to the three cold cases from 2005.
Two of the three men killed by Vilakazi were found naked at the time of their deaths, leading the court to believe that the murders were sexually motivated.
Vilakazi admitted in court on Monday to being a devil worshipper and practising Satanism. He has the numbers 666 tattooed across his forehead and said voices told him to kill people.
Brigadier Gerard Labuschagne, commander of the SAPS Investigative Psychology Section, compiled a pre-sentencing report on Vilakazi’s behaviour and the risk posed by people accused of such offences.
Labuschagne, who has 14 years’ experience in serial murders, said Vilakazi could be classified as a serial murderer because he has committed more than two murders on separate occasions.
“Experts concur that irrespective of how or why a person became a serial murderer, it is ultimately their choice to set out and commit murder. The current viewpoint is that serial murderers cannot be rehabilitated,” he wrote in the report.
Sexual offenders were also “extremely difficult” to rehabilitate since their crimes were linked to their sex drive, he said, adding that rapists were among the highest repeat offenders.
Pretoria News