On Thursday, May 26, the North West High Court in South Africa convicted a 24-year-old man to five life sentences for rape and 300 years for other crimes including housebreaking and robbery with aggravating circumstances.
Sbongiseni Njabulo Ngwenya was found guilty of 39 counts, including 16 instances of rape, nine counts of armed robbery, thirteen crimes of housebreaking, and one act of attempted murder.
Ngwenya was found unfit to possess a firearm by the court, which was sitting at the Ga-Rankuwa regional court, and his name was added to the register of sexual offenders.
The court, sitting in the Ga-Rankuwa regional court, declared Ngwenya unfit to possess a firearm and ordered that his name be included in the register of sexual offenders.
Ngwenya made an application for leave to appeal, and his application will be heard on Friday.
Ngwenya was arrested in September 2018 after a series of crimes reported to the police.
Evidence presented in court revealed that Ngwenya broke into his victims’ homes at night, threatened them with a firearm, robbed them of TV sets, cellphones and money, and raped them before fleeing the scene.
Three of his rape victims were minors aged 12, 14 and 16. Ngwenya was linked by DNA on the rape cases.
On the attempted murder charge, he accosted two girls as they entered their home. When their brother appeared from another room, Ngwenya shot him in the leg and took the girls to a nearby bush and raped them.
North West director of public prosecutions, Rachel Makhari-Sekhaolelo praised all involved in securing Ngwenya’s conviction.
“The hopes of our people are pinned on the criminal justice system to fight gender-based violence and such convictions will be a deterrent factor to wannabe offenders”, Makhari-Sekhaolelo said.