Rapist, murderer sentenced to long time behind bars

Provincial Police Commissioner Nneke Ledwaba has welcomed the recent hefty sentencing of two criminals convicted on charges of rape and murder in two separate court cases.
Provincial Police Spokesperson Moatshe Ngoepe indicated that the High Court sitting in Thohoyandou sentenced a 50-year-old man to two life terms after convicted him of the rape of his two daughters.
Ngoepe said the victims, aged 13 and 16, were repeatedly raped over a period of two years, from January 2014 until February 2016, in the absence of their mother. The accused would sneak into the room the girls shared at night and rape them.
The ordeal resulted in the youngest daughter being impregnated. It was only then that the matter was eventually reported to the Police and the suspect subsequently arrested, according to Ngoepe.
In the second case the Limpopo High Court sentenced Joseph Mafifi (39) to an effective 12 years imprisonment for the murder of his girlfriend last year.
Ngoepe indicated that on 18 March last year the Tom Burke Police Station received a report of a woman having been stabbed on a farm at Swartwater. Upon arrival at the farm the responding officers found the lifeless body of Simangele Sibanda (44), a Zimbabwean national, with multiple stab wounds all over.
According to Ngoepe the perpetrator had by then already fled the scene but thorough investigation by detectives led to Mafifi being traced and apprehended at his home village in Botswana within days after the incident.
During court proceedings Mafifi revealed the motive for his deed to have been Sibanda’s termination of her pregnancy with his child without his consent.
“Violent men of this nature should not be allowed in our society and Police will ensure that each and every one involved in crimes against women and children, is sent to prison indefinitely, Ledwaba was quoted to have said.

Story: RC Myburgh
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