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A 29-year-old Eastern Cape pastor and traditional healer has been sentenced to three life terms for raping three minor girls.
The National Prosecuting Authority said Lubabalo “Payi” Sabhawu, was sentenced on Friday for the incidents in 2018 when the children, aged 14,15, and 16, were sent to him for ‘treatment’.
NPA spokesperson, Luxolo Tyali, said one of the victims suffered from epilepsy.
“Sabhawu raped the young girls on numerous occasions at a homestead that had been provided by his congregants to him at Zikolokota village in the district of Elliotdale,” Tyali said.
He is originally from another village and had duped his congregants into believing that he is a “man of God with supernatural powers”.
Tyali said after violating his victims, Sabhawu would threaten that he would cast a spell that would cause them to be struck by lightning.
He said the rapes were uncovered when all the girls got a sexually transmitted disease and they later confided to nurses that they had been raped.
After initially pleading not guilty, Tyali said Sabhawu later changed his plea when the state closed its case.
In sentencing Sabhawu, Magistrate Sizakele Sihlahla also ordered that his name be listed on the register of sex offenders.
