How DNA evidence closed cold gang-rape, robbery case after 5 years

DNA evidence has nailed an illegal Zimbabwean immigrant who, together with his accomplice, still at large, gang-raped a defenceless Diepsloot mother after bashing her head with a brick in April 2017.

Activists say the case serves as an example of the importance of forensic DNA evidence in criminal investigations, and should prompt President Cyril Ramaphosa to speed up the signing of a DNA Bill which is currently sitting on his desk.

Assault and rape

On that fateful Friday night, Lerato Nkobolo was asleep with her two-month-old baby, in the safety of her home, when the duo knocked on the door, pretending to be police officers.

After opening the door, she was knocked out with a blow to her face with a brick and woke up to one of the assailants raping her. The second man followed, with neither using a condom.

The duo fled with her cell phones and bank cards, leaving little prospect of ever being caught. However, a month later when one of the assailants, Mandulo Moyo, was arrested for another gang-rape case in Diepsloot.

ALSO READ: Probe-launched-after-five-gang-raped-at-funeral-parlour

DNA samples provide breakthrough

When Nkobolo reported her ordeal to the police, DNA samples were taken and the rape kit submitted as an unsolved case.

National Prosecution Authority (NPA) spokesperson Phindi Mjonondwane said a cheek swab was taken from Moyo, and sent to the forensic laboratory. This triggered the rape kit submitted in Nkobolo’s unsolved case.

She said the laboratory then instructed the investigating officer to obtain further confirmatory samples from the accused.

“These came back positive, confirming that the accused’s DNA was found on the vaginal swabs in Nkobolo’s case. He was then charged with rape, robbery with aggravating circumstances as well as contravention of the Immigration Act,” Mjonondwane said.

Case highlights importance of DNA evidence

The case has once again demonstrated the importance of DNA evidence in solving violent crime cases of rape and murder, but civil rights organisation Action Society has lamented that it took seven years for the National Assembly to approve the DNA Bill.

ALSO READ: DNA-bill-delay-sets-rapists-and-murderers-loose

The Criminal Law (Forensic Procedures) Amendment Bill (DNA Bill) makes provision for the extraction of DNA samples from all convicted schedule 8 offenders such as rape, murder, human trafficking, robbery, and culpable homicide for a central criminal database.

Action Society Director: Community Safety Ian Cameron said the Bill was now awaiting President Cyril Ramaphosa’s signature to become law.

He urged the president to act hastily to sign the Bill into law, as 96,785 violent crime offenders have been released on parole since 2016 without submitting a DNA sample.

“We are now just one step away from technically making South Africa a safer place against serial criminality,” Cameron said.

Life behind bars

On Tuesday, the Randburg Magistrate’s Court sentenced Mandulo Moyo to life imprisonment for his heinous attack on Nkobolo.

The court agreed with the state and rejected Moyo’s version that he was in a consenting relationship with the complainant.

The state had maintained that Moyo was on a mission of destruction, knowing that he was an illegal immigrant in the country, and could therefore not be easily traced.

ALSO READ: Watch: Cele-says-victim-lucky-to-be-raped-by-one-man

State Advocate Given Mbedzi said Moyo had terrorised women in the sanctity of their own homes, where they thought they were safe.

He asked the court to consider that Nkobolo was left with physical and psychological scars, and had to be operated on after her eye socket was broken when she was attacked with the brick.