Cape Town – Bhekani Mlaba, 32, was sentenced to life in jail after posing as a woman to befriend a woman on Facebook and then repeatedly raping her.
Mlaba was sentenced by the Eshowe regional court in KwaZulu-Natal for the kidnapping, assault, and continued rape of his victim between May and July 2019 in the Melmoth area.
According to IOL, KZN National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson Natasha Ramkisson-Kara said that the victim confided in him before he raped her.
“After speaking online for a while, the complainant confided in him, saying that she was experiencing financial problems,” Ramkisson-Kara was quoted as saying.
“Mlaba told her that he would give her R10 000 to start her own business but she must travel to Melmoth to fetch the money. All their communication was on Facebook and they had never called each other as Mlaba told her that the speaker on his phone was faulty.”
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Ramkisson-Kara said that Mlaba took his victim to the forest where he raped her, News24 reported.
“The complainant travelled to Melmoth and waited for Mlaba at a bus stop. He told her that he would send his nephew to meet her and bring her to the house. Unbeknown to the complainant that this was the person she was chatting to all along, Mlaba arrived and suggested they take a shortcut through the forest,” Ramkisson-Kara was quoted as saying.
After pointing a knife at her, Mlaba instructed the victim to undress and then he raped her
He then gave her an ultimatum: to be his girlfriend or be killed. She chose to save her life and promised not to report it to the police. He then took her to his relatives’ homestead, where he introduced her as his fiancée.
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“They were given an isolated room, and she was not allowed to go outside or communicate with anybody there. He continued to rape and grievously assault her,” Ramkisson-Kara added.
He then transported her to another homestead and threatened to stab her if she ran away or alerted anyone while on their way there.
At the homestead, the woman confided in a relative when they had gone down to the river to fetch water, alerting her as to what had transpired. A male relative was then made aware of the situation and called the police. Subsequently, Mlaba was arrested.
“Mlaba was sentenced to life imprisonment for rape, five years for kidnapping and three years for grievous assault,” IOL quoted Ramkisson-Kara as saying.
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Compiled by Junaid Benjamin
