The Weekly reports that “the wanton sojourn by a sexually ambivalent Bloemfontein man who willfully raped young girls and sodomised young boys came to a crashing halt on Tuesday when the High Court threw the keys at him and roasted the 23-year-old for violently taking away the virginity of the toddlers.”
Mpho Mhlafu from Bloemspruit, whose raping spree saw him violating four girls and sodomising two boys in 2009, finally got to pay for his depraved acts when the Bloemfontein High Court sentenced him to 130 years in jail for his callous and inhumane deeds.
The paedophile’s perverted practices came to light when the two boys (who are siblings) aged two and four told their mother how the convict had made them perform oral sex on him.
This triggered a domino effect, with four girls – aged between six and eight – in the same neighbourhood also coming out to relate how Mhlafu had repeatedly raped them.
The parents of the six minors reported the matter to the Bloemspruit police station outside Bloemfontein. He was promptly arrested but was later released on bail. The habitual offender was re-arrested in May 2010 after robbing a woman of her handbag containing personal belongings and cash. He was still in custody when investigations by Captain Sandile Linda revealed that Mhlafu had a pending rape case involving six minors.
Mhlafu was subsequently tried, convicted and sentenced to 20 years in jail on each account of rape, and an additional 10 years for robbery.
The rape sentences will run concurrently, hence will serve 20 years for rape and extra 10 years for robbery, making it an effective 30 years behind bars.
Handing down the sentence on Wednesday this week, Justice AJ Thamage described rape as a serious offence in the country, whose perpetrators should receive the maximum jail sentence. He said the sentences took into consideration the fact that the girls had lost their virginity in the ordeal.
Judge Thamage noted, however, that the convict is still young and has a child and a girlfriend who are staying with his mother. He was studying at the time of the robbery.
He also took cognisance of the fact that Mhlafu had no prior intention to rape the children, as the children had been called into his home by his sister. He said sentencing the accused to life in prison would be tantamount to killing him, adding that he still wanted to see him rehabilitated.
“Playing is part of childhood and no parent can lock or prevent their kids from playing, so I will sentence you to 20 years for each count of rape, which you will serve concurrently and another 10 years for robbery, which will be 30 years.”
After the sentencing, Mhlafu’s girlfriend hugged and kissed him before the police handcuffed him and whisked him away to his jail cell. The girlfriend told Mhlafu to behave himself in jail.
The victims’ parents welcomed the sentence saying it will bring closure for their children who have been traumatised by the experience while others felt he deserved a life sentence.
The mother of the two boys who performed oral sex on Mhlafu said her sons were initially scared to tell her what he had done to them.
It was revealed that Mhlafu lured the boys to his room and asked them if they knew how to “suck at a stalk sweet”. When they fell for the trap, he forced them to take turns performing oral sex on him.
When she confronted him, Mhlafu denied doing anything untoward to the children, but he later came clean and apologised.
The woman confided in a neighbour. This opened a Pandora’s Box, as it turned out that the neighbour’s daughter had also been raped, along with three other girls by the convicted rapist.
The girls told the court how Mhlafu had made them watch porn movies before raping them. – theweekly.co.za
