JOHANNESBURG - Gauteng Community Safety MEC Sizakele Nkosi–Malobane on Tuesday welcomed the multiple life sentences handed down on a serial rapist.
This comes after the South Gauteng High Court on Tuesday sentenced Shadrack Xidada Chauke, 26, to an effective 23 life sentences for rape, two life sentences for attempted rape, eight years each for two counts of attempted murder,15 years each for 11 counts of robbery, six years each for five counts of assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and three years each for three counts of kidnapping.
Effectively, Chauke was sentenced to 25 life sentences plus an additional 254 years in prison.
"I want to applaud the dedication and excellent detective work carried out by our law enforcement officers in this case. This will go a long way to send a strong message that women’s rights and those of girl children are human rights," Nkosi-Malobane said.
READ: Gauteng serial rapist handed 25 life terms plus 254 years
"I also want to commend my team at Ikhaya Lethemba for providing court preparation support, trauma counselling services, accommodation and sexual offences seminars to the victims of this heinous crimes.
This provided the much-needed psychological support and positive re-integration into the society."
Between 2012 and 2014, Chauke raped 23 women in the Tembisa, Ivory Park and Kempton areas. His modus operandi was to break into the victims’ houses and rape them.
He also accosted and attacked their partners and made them watch whilst he raped them. He was arrested in 2015.
Police spokesperson Captain Mavela Masondo said Chauke was spotted by a rape victim three months after the incident in December 2015.
Masondo said that police swiftly responded to the woman's call and arrested the suspect who was subsequently subjected to forensic tests as part of the thorough investigation, successfully linking him to a total of 17 other cases that had previously been reported to the police.