Serial rapist Lebogang Mokoena. Picture: Twitter (@Chriseldalewis)
Taxi driver Lebogang Mokoena has been handed multiple life sentences after being found guilty of, among other crimes, 13 charges of rape.
Mokoena became infamous for what became known as the #QuantumRapes, a series of serial rapes and sexual assaults that took place inside his Toyota Quantum taxi between September 2016 and October 2017.
Mokoena was sentenced on Thursday at the Palm Ridge Magistrates Court in Gauteng.
He has received a life sentence for each of his 13 rape charges.
Other charges Mokoena was found guilty of include: 9 counts kidnapping, for which he got ten years for each count; 9 counts of pointing of an object that looked like a firearm, for which he received five years per count; and an additional charge of aggravated robbery, for which he received 20 years.
Mokoena pleaded guilty to all charges.
His additional charges, which total 340 years in jail in addition to his life sentences, will run concurrently with them.
Acting Judge Cassim Moosa said: “Rape is degrading and humiliating. The very act itself is a violent and traumatic infringement of the fundamental right to be free and not to be degraded.
“Violence and abuse against women and children goes on unabated in our society. The public is outraged, and there is increasing pressure on the courts to impose harsher sentences as a deterrent.”
He also noted that Mokoena had not worn a condom and seemed unconcerned with the risks his victims faced as a result.
Mokoena has been described as unremorseful.
SABC’s Chriselda Lewis tweeted from court: “I just approached Lebogang Mokoena who has been sentenced to life imprisonment for a spate of taxi rapes and I ask him if he is sorry, he says he has nothing to be sorry for.”
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