A 33-year-old man has been convicted of raping and robbing women he lured on Facebook after promising them fake jobs as childminders.
Sibusiso Khoza appeared at a sitting of the Pretoria High Court in the Benoni Magistrate’s Court on September 2, facing 18 counts.
He was found guilty on seven counts – rape and robbery with aggravating circumstances (six counts) and assault with the intent to do grievous bodily harm.
He was acquitted on two counts of attempted rape, possession of a firearm and ammunition.
Khoza, who lived in Barcelona in Ewatwa, committed these crimes against seven women in mielie field in Putfontein between January and May last year after approaching his victims, aged between 26 and 42, on social media or through their relatives.
Using the name ‘Given’, Khoza would communicate with his victims by cellphone to make arrangements for their ‘job appointments’.
He would wait for the women at the Benoni taxi rank, Northmead Mall or at fast food outlets then board a taxi with them to his ‘employer’ in Putfontein, where he claimed he worked as a gardener.
Some victims met him in Putfontein. Some of the victims were lured from areas such as Vosloorus, Atteridgeville, Mpumalanga and Thembisa.
After arriving in Putfontein, Khoza would walk with the victims, making excuses that the road that they had to use passes through a mielie field.
He would then rape them and rob them of their belongings, including cellphones and money, before fleeing the scene.
One of the victims, who was raped more than once by Khoza, had her two-year-old child with her at the time.
One of his victims told the police that Khoza, who was in possession of a knife, wanted to rape her but didn’t after realising that she was on her menstrual cycle.
He went on to rob her of two cellphones, a wrist watch and her bag containing her ID card, R80 and two bank cards.
Another victim, who met Khoza at Northmead Mall, was asked for oral sex.
Another victim, who sustained injuries after refusing to be raped by Khoza when she fought back, was assaulted with the metal buckle of his belt and a rock was thrown at her.
During court proceedings, Judge Jay Monyemangene said that during the trial a data analyst from Vodacom compiled a report stating the type of calls that were made to the complainants, the duration of the calls and the places that the calls were made from.
Khoza told the court that he did not know about all the charges that he faced.
He claimed that from December 2020 to January 2021 he was in Bushbuckridge.
Monyemangene said when Khoza was confronted with DNA evidence linking him to the crimes, he said the women might have had his DNA on them because he used their services (prostitution).
When he was confronted about the cellphone number he was using to call his victims from, Khoza said his number might have been fraudulently used by someone after he bought a SIM card from a shop where he lives in Barcelona.
Monyemangene said Khoza’s version was full of lies and he could have done a SIM swap when he noticed that police were onto him.
He added that through the same modus operandi, an identification that was done by all the victims, DNA and his cellphone number the State was able to prove that it was indeed Khoza who was responsible for the rapes and robberies.
Sentencing is expected to be handed down on September 9.
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