Serial rapist sentenced to 10 life terms and 159 years in Gauteng

A serial rapist has been sentenced to 10 life terms and a further 159 years’ imprisonment for offences he committed against 14 women.

The Gauteng High Court, sitting in Benoni, sentenced 28-year-old Amos Mphikeleli Ngubeni on Monday after he was convicted of 14 counts of rape.

He was also convicted of kidnapping, theft, robbery, four counts of housebreaking with the intention to commit an offence unknown to the State, seven counts of robbery with aggravating circumstances and pointing an object that is likely to lead a person to believe that it is a firearm.

Ngubeni committed the offences in and around Benoni from 2011 to 2012. He raped 14 women, aged 18 to 21, using different tactics to target them.

He broke into some of the women’s houses, robbed them and raped them, sometimes with an accomplice.

Ngubeni was arrested at his home on 4 August 2019 in Balfour, Mpumalanga, after DNA evidence linked him to the offences. He pleaded guilty to 28 charges.

State advocate Cornelia Harmzen said most of the victims did not heal from their emotional wounds.

National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Lumka Mahanjana said the investigating officer, Sergeant Nkoana, did a magnificent job in tracing and arresting the accused.

“To many of the victims, their hope of a different and a better life is in the fact that the accused is punished for what he has done to them.”

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