A man from Molteno in the Eastern Cape who raped five women in the space of two years has been sentenced to two life terms plus 84 years in prison.
The 23-year-old Athenkosi Matyaleni, who committed his first rape when he was a teenager, was sentenced in the Grahamstown High Court on Thursday.
National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Anelisa Ngcakani says Matyaleni's youngest victim was 11-years-old.
She says Judge Thami Beshe further sentenced Matyaleni to 30-years imprisonment on two counts of robbery with aggravating circumstances and three years on two counts of common robbery.
He was also sentenced to 24 months for assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm as he hit a woman in the face with a glass bottle during one of the rape incidents.
In December 2017, when Matyaleni was just 19-years old, he raped a 27-year-old woman at knifepoint and physically assaulted her before stealing her cellphone.
Three weeks later he raped a 28-year-old woman who was walking home and robbed her of her cellphone.
A community member who witnessed the crime called the police but Matyaleni managed to run away.
His third victim was a 38-year-old woman who was walking with her cousin to her boyfriend's house in February of 2018.
Matyaleni also hit the victim's cousin with a glass bottle that broke on her face, leaving her with a permanent scar.
Three months later an 11-year-old girl was picking wild fruit in the veld with her friends when Matyaleni chased the children with a knife and raped the child.
Ngcakani says Matyaleni was eventually arrested in May of 2019 when his last victim, a 40-year-old woman, followed him to a house after he violently raped her while holding a screwdriver to her neck.
She knocked on the door and confronted him and a few days later led police to the house where Matyaleni was arrested.
In handing down sentencing, Judge Beshe said Matyaleni was a danger to women and had to be removed from society for a very long time.
