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An Mdtantsane man was convicted of two murders and 18 rapes he committed while out on parole for rape. The Bhisho High Court also found 45-year-old Malibongwe Ncokolo guilty of attempted rape.
The youngest of his victims was 11 years old in the attacks he committed between 2014 and 2017.
The convictions bring to a close a period of horror for the communities he carried out his attacks in.
National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson in the Eastern Cape Anelisa Ngcakani said he was released on parole in February 2014, but set about raping girls and women.
He would lie in wait as they walked alone, and threatened them with a knife as he dragged them into bushes.
One of his victims was 11 years old. Ncokolo carried out his attacks in Mdantsane, Scenery Park and East London until his arrest in 2017.
One of his other victims was a 14-year-old girl who was raped while walking home from school on 31 May 2017 in Unit 6, Mdantsane.
She managed to escape after he had raped, strangled, and tried to drag her deeper into a bush.People nearby heard her screaming and ran to her rescue. As they were looking for the perpetrator, they found the decomposing bodies of Bongiwe Matoyo, 25, and Lindi Malote, 19.
Ncokolo was arrested a week later, and found with the cellphone of the 14-year-old girl he had raped. DNA evidence linked him to a slew of attacks.
Judge Igna Stretch found him guilty of the murders of Matoyo and Malote, but he was acquitted on the charge of murdering Thulisa Ndika because her body was not found.
Her school bag was found at the site of the decomposing bodies of Matoyo and Malote.
Ncokolo was also acquitted on charges of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm. Stretch also found him guilty of four counts of assault and two counts of theft; crimes which he committed during the rapes.
Members of a task team consisting of various police units, including Mdantsane NU1 detectives and members of the Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit, arrested Ncokolo a week after his attack on the 14-year-old girl.
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