More charges are to be added to the twenty three charges of rape that an alleged serial rapist is currently facing, a court in Cape Town heard on Thursday.
The man, 33, may not be named until his trial, in the Western Cape High Court, commences.
He made his third appearance on Thursday, in the Bellville District Court, before magistrate Ronald Rieckerts, who remanded him to October 27.
At his first appearance on May 11, prosecutor Stefans Venter said the State would oppose any bail application that the man may be wish to bring.
At his next appearance, on May 18, the man’s legal aid lawyer, Robyn Diedericks, told the court that he had abandoned his intended application.
At Thursday’s proceedings, State advocate Nokuzola Mbewana, of the Western Cape Directorate for Public Prosecutions, replaced Venter as the prosecutor.
She is to prosecute the case when the trial commences in the High Court.
She told the court that the investigation involving the 23 charges was completed, but that additional charges would be added when the man makes his fourth appearance in October.
The man was arrested in May, in the Epping Industrial area, after the Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences provincial task team had completed extensive investigations.
A police statement at the time said the man’s method was to approach victims, and threaten and rob them of jewellery and money, before raping them.
He was arrested after forensic tests linked him to the alleged rapes of 23 women.
The statement said the rapes were perpetrated over a period of five years, in the Delft area on the Cape Flats, as well as in Khayelitsha.
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