Mpumalanga police on Tuesday welcomed the harsh sentences imposed on three rapists in the province in the last month, including a nonagenarian.
According to Brigadier Leonard Hlathi, 91-year-old Mdungwa Johannes Malinga was convicted and later sentenced to life imprisonment in the Carolina Regional Court for the rapes of 12 children between 2006 and 2007.
"The court heard how Malinga, who claimed to be a traditional healer, sexually exploited children aged between seven and nine that were brought to him to be healed," said Hlathi.
"Some of the children slept over at his house so that he could perform the rituals/rites and in the process, Malinga took advantage and raped them. Three of the victims were also assaulted seriously by the accused."
In a separate case in the KwaMahlanga Regional Court, two men - Jan Mtsweni, 35, and Papa Jacob Masina, 40, were also handed life sentences for the rape of an 18-year-old hitchhiker.
Mtsweni, Masina and co-accused David Makhondo had offered the woman a lift from KwaMahlanga to Vaalbank. While they were driving, they robbed the woman of her handbag, her cell phone and bank card.
"They demanded her bank card pin code and went to an Automated Teller Machine (ATM), where they attempted to withdraw money with no success," said Lhlathi.
"The men then drove with her to a secluded area around Suncity D Village, near KwaMhlanga where two of the accused took turns raping her."
Makhondo was sentenced to 12 months in prison for theft. His sentence was suspended for three years, granted he does not commit a similar offence during this time.
- African News Agency (ANA)
