The North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria recently sentenced a 24-year-old man to five life terms and 28 years imprisonment for rape and kidnapping.
Lumka Mahanjana, National Prosecuting Authority regional spokesperson explained that the Gauteng North Division sitting in Palm Ridge has sentenced Sibusiso Witness Matshaya after he was convicted on five counts of rape and kidnapping.
These incidents occurred between 2016 and 2019. Four of his victims were minors whom he took turns raping in a veld while threatening them with a knife.
After raping the minors he forced one of them into a house on an abandoned plot nearby and raped her another three times before eventually releasing her the next morning.
Matshaya had two previous rape convictions against him, the first of which was committed in 2013. In that case, Matshaya was given a five-year suspended sentence.
But before his suspension period came to an end, he had another charge of rape brought against him in 2015 for which he was then sentenced to five years imprisonment. He was out on bail when he committed the latest offences.
“Prosecutor, Advocate Sasabona Dorah Ngobeni, welcomed the sentence, especially because the rate of gender-based violence in South Africa was alarming and needed to be harshly curbed,” read Mahanjana’s statement.
