NPA
A man who killed six sex workers was on Wednesday sentenced to six life terms plus an additional 170 years imprisonment for six counts of rape, six of murder, and six of defeating the ends of justice.
He was also found guilty of the possession of an unlicensed firearm and ammunition as well as theft.
Sifiso Mkhwanazi (21), who was sentenced in the South Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg, killed the women between April 2022 and October of that year and concealed their bodies in different locations within the yard of the workshop.
During the trial and after pleading not guilty, he told the court that the offences were committed in revenge of a false rape accusation which resulted in his incarceration for a period of 10 months.
Mkhwanazi admitted to killing the women using an arm choke.
He further admitted to the charges of robbery with aggravating circumstances in that he robbed one of the deceased of her cell phone.
He also stole his father’s firearm and ammunition.
Spokesperson for the National Prosecuting Authority, Phindi Mjongondwana, said Mkhwanazi, however, denied raping the women and alleged that it was consensual sex with the agreement of money for sex.
“He denied planning the murders of these women and said the crimes were impulsively committed as the women reneged on their agreement on the payment for sex and demanded more money,” Mjongondwana said in a statement.
She said the post-mortems recorded the cause of deaths in five of the bodies as consistent with strangulation and/or suffocation, whilst the sixth body’s post-mortem determined the cause of death to be that of a gunshot wound to the head.
The court also declared Mkhwanazi to be a dangerous criminal, citing that the community should be protected from him.
Furthermore, the accused was ordered to undergo imprisonment for an indefinite period.
He will only be able to apply for parole after serving at least 30 years of the imposed sentence following an inquiry to determine whether he was still a danger to society or not.
