SERIAL RAPIST AND MURDERER SENTENCED TO 4 LIFE TERMS
The Middelburg High Court convicted and sentenced Joseph Thabang Selepe (30), to four life terms for two counts of murder and two counts of rape he committed in Kwaggafontein in the district of KwaMhlanga. The crimes were committed during the period between March 2020 to 04 May 2021. Selepe’s modus operandi was to accost his victims to secluded areas rape them and strangle them to death.
The first victim Pauline Sangweni was staying a street away from the accused’s place of residence. On 20 March 2020, the victim left Kwaggafontein A, intending to catch a taxi en route to KwaMhlanga, and she never came home. Her lifeless body was found near Sokapo Secondary School, the following day half naked. The second victim Zanele Mnguni, from Kwa Mhlanga, was last seen by her siblings on 11 December 2021, going to Kwaggafontein Mall, and she never came back. She was later found raped and killed the following day by a passer-by near the same school where the first victim’s body was discovered.
The accused was linked to the crimes through DNA after he inserted his sim card on the victim’s cellular phone. In court the accused pleaded not guilty to the crimes, instead, he denied the allegations levelled against him. State Advocate Themba Lusenga, led the testimonies of several witnesses including the evidence of a pathologist expert confirming that the victims were raped before they were strangled. Post-mortem reports proving that the deceased cause of death was manual strangulation were presented.
In aggravation of the sentence, Advocate Lusenga argued to the court that the accused treated the victims as animals by leaving them lying half naked on the street. If courts do not mete out appropriate sentences society will lose confidence in the criminal justice system and people might be tempted to take the law into their own hands and will plunge the society into a state of anarchy asking the court to impose a prescribed minimum sentence. Handing down the sentence Judge Kgankie Phahlamohlaka took all the evidence placed before the court and found no reason justifying deviation from the prescribed minimum sentence of life. He sentenced Selepe to four life terms.
The National Prosecuting Authority prosecutes hundreds of such cases daily that affect the safety and the well-being of our communities and ensure justice for the victims of crime.
