KZN police hunt for ‘satanic’ serial rapist

According to Empangeni police spokesperson Captain Mbongeni Mdlalose, the suspect employed the same modus operandi in all three cases, Zululand Observer reported.

Mdlalose said the man phoned unsuspecting women, offering employment. A meeting is then set up, during which he leads the women to a sugarcane field or bushes nearby, where he allegedly assaults and rapes them. According to Mdlalose, the alleged rapist then tells the women he is a satanist and that if the attack is reported to police, he will kill her by “satanic spirit”.

In April 2014, another alleged serial rapist was arrested in Empangeni. Jabulani Dlamini, 41, was arrested and charged with nine counts of rape. He posed as a security guard around shops in the CBD, luring his victims to secluded spots by telling them he had caught them shoplifting on CCTV. Dlamini is due to appear again in the Mtubatuba High Court on May 8 on multiple rape charges.

In February, Simon Sithole, a serial rapist from Mamelodi, was sentenced in the Pretoria High Court to 564 years’ imprisonment, of which he effectively has to serve 78 years.

The 27-year-old Mozambican national had waged a reign of terror for years in the Pretoria East township before his arrest. Sithole’s 21 victims include an 11-year-old child and three 16-year-old girls. Sithole used a range of weapons, including a firearm, knife, axe, screwdriver and garden shears to threaten his victims.

– Caxton News Service