The North West Provincial Management welcomed a combined sentence of 140 years imprisonment handed down to a serial rapist, Tebogo Israel Matiwane, 26, by North Gauteng High Court sitting in Potchefstroom last week.
Matiwane was sentenced on six counts of rape and robbery that were committed between April 2008 and March 2016 in Ikageng and Potchefstroom respectively.
The accused was given 10 years imprisonment for each of the six counts of rape and 15 years for each of four counts of rape. He was also handed 10 and five year’s imprisonment of two other counts of robberies.
The suspect’s modus operandi was to target unsuspecting woman walking alone on the streets, then rape and rob them of their belongings. In one of the incidents, in April 2008, a 47 year old woman was walking next to a block of flats in Potchefstroom when the accused and another unknown male followed her.
They grabbed and pulled her to the ground. The accused, threatened with a knife and instructed her not to scream. He undressed the victim and raped her. It was reported at the time of the incident that the accused’s accomplice searched the victim and took her lighter and cigarettes before they fled the scene.
In another unrelated incident, a 23 year old woman was on her way to the library in Ikageng on Friday, 19 February 2016, when the accused who was armed with a knife approached her. Matiwane took the victim’s two cell phones and her bank card. He then took her close to the local stadium where he raped her.
Following a thorough investigation the accused was arrested on Friday, 23 September 2016, and through the utilization of investigative aids, he was linked through DNA to other cases.
The North West Provincial Commissioner, Lieutenant General Baile Motswenyane welcomed the sentence and said that the sentence proves that the long arm of the law ensured that justice is served to the victims and the community. She said that the sentence will send a message to rapists out there that no stone will be left unturned to ensure that perpetrators of crime are brought to book.
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