Life sentence for rapist of girls
A rapist who terrorised the community of Vaalwater and Lephalale, has been sent to jail for 25 years.
Abel Sello Lefoane received a life sentence from the Polokwane High Court on Tuesday 6 February on eight charges, including rape, robbery, and burglary.
The court heard how Lefoane preyed on four young girls aged between 13 and 15 years in Vaalwater and Lephalale. Another victim was 29 years old. He accosted the women near bushy areas as they were walking home and threatened to kill them with a knife. He then raped them without a condom and stole money and their cell phones. All the victims managed to flee after the attacks.
One of the girls was walking back home early from school as she was not feeling well, while the 13-year-old was collecting fruit in the bush when Lefoane attacked her. These attacks took place in 2015 and 2016. He received sentences of twenty years on each rape charge, but a 25-year sentence for the rape of the 13-year-old girl. DNA results linked him with these attacks.
He was also sentenced to five years imprisonment for each of two counts of business burglaries in Vaalwater. The court heard that Lefoane broke into the Bush Coffee shop in 2008 during lunchtime and stole R5 000 cash. In 2007 he broke into Cloud 9, a gift shop at around 13:00 and stole perfume, jewellery, and more than R1 000 cash. His fingerprints linked him with the break-ins.
Lefoane’s sentences will run concurrently. WO Ciska Kruger of the Modimolle Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit (FCS) is the investigating officer.
