A 42-year-old man’s decade-long raping spree has earned him a hefty sentence from the Mtubatuba High Court in northern KwaZulu-Natal on Monday.
Bhekithemba Fanozi Nxumalo was sentenced to 12 terms of life in prison and an additional 75 years after he was found guilty on a string of rape cases.
Provincial police spokesperson Colonel Robert Netshiunda said the sentence which condemns Nxumalo to spend the rest of his life in jail was handed down on June 10, 2024.
Netshiunda said Nxumalo’s reign of terror started in July 2012 when he broke into a house in the Mdungandlovu Reserve around midnight and found an elderly woman sleeping with her two granddaughters.
“Nxumalo demanded money from the granny at knife-point and when he could not find any, he raped her 24-year-old granddaughter.”
He said the rape victim managed to use her cellphone to contact her brother, who came to their rescue and saved her sister and grandmother from a similar fate.
“Nxumalo managed to escape into darkness,” said Netshiunda.
Netshiunda said Nxumalo continued his raping spree, targeting young women who were walking alone.
“He would drag them into the bushes and sugar cane fields and threatened them with a knife before raping them. In most cases the convicted sex pest would rape his victims more than once,” he said.
According to Netshiunda, Nxumalo’s 10-year raping spree was brought to an abrupt end when police cornered and arrested him in April 2021.
“Shrewd investigative work by the KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit has put an end to Bhekithemba Fanozi Nxumalo’s raping spree,” he said.
He said the accused’s application for an appeal was refused and he was also declared unfit to possess a firearm.
The Mercury