A man was convicted of the rape, murder or attempts to do so of three women, including one who was eight months’ pregnant.
|||Cape Town - An Eastern Cape man has been convicted of six counts involving the rape, murder or attempted murder of three women, one of whom was eight months’ pregnant.
On Wednesday, Western Cape High Court acting Judge Nolwazi Boqwana found that Sandisile Makhakha tried to rape mother-to-be Nozukile Ntshoze in the bushes near her home in Masakhane in Gansbaai on October 18, 2007, before killing her.
Ntshoze’s body was found buried face-down in a shallow grave about 120m from her home.
According to the postmortem, the cause of Ntshoze’s death was “asphyxia due to manual strangulation”.
Makhakha, who is also known as Lunga Msengana, was linked to the crime after his semen was found on Ntshoze’s underwear.
An unused condom, removed from its wrapper, was also found at the scene. This was, however, not enough to prove that Makhakha had raped her.
But as the prosecution argued, Makhakha had strangled Ntshoze to prevent her from reporting the incident to police because she knew him. They lived in the same area.
About a month later, a knife-wielding Makhakha accosted another Gansbaai woman, Phindiwe Keswa, 23, as she was walking home from work around midday on November 25, 2007.
He approached her from behind, drew the knife and said he wanted to kill her. Makhakha dragged her into the nearby bushes, choked her and robbed her of her cellphone and R300.
The woman filed a complaint at the police station and a passerby also reported the incident. Makhakha was arrested but used the fake name.
The charges were withdrawn against him a year later because Keswa refused to testify.
In July 2011, Makhakha struck again while he was living in the Eastern Cape. This time, he was seen walking with Azavela Ziwele,16, in the Balasi grazing field in Bisho. Two days later, a farmer discovered the teenager’s body in the field.
She too had been raped and strangled. Makhakha’s semen was found on her underwear.
He was arrested a week later.
The prosecution decided to combine the cases against Makhakha and try him in the Western Cape.
On Wednesday, Judge Boqwana convicted Makhakha of two counts of murder, one of attempted murder, one of rape, another of attempted rape and one count of aggravated robbery.
Sentencing proceedings are set to start on Thursday.
jade.otto@inl.co.za
Cape Argus