Rapist ANC councillor asks for five months in jail. He gets life plus 58

Tshwane ANC ward councillor Emmanuel Sipho Maselane was handed a life sentence and an additional 58 years in jail after he was convicted of several counts of rape and robbery on Wednesday.

Maselane, the Ward 9 councillor, appeared before the Ga-Rankuwa Magistrates’ Court where he was sentenced for robbing and raping four female victims in Winterveldt in 2014 and 2015.

Asked what he thought his sentence should be, the councillor confidently told Magistrate Dan Mogotsi that he deserved only five months in jail.

Instead, he was handed five years for each of the four counts of robbery with aggravated circumstances, 10 years each on two counts of rape, and 18 years for another rape charge. For his fourth rape charge, he was sentenced to life imprisonment, as he contacted a friend to join him in raping and robbing his victims.

Despite evidence pointing to his involvement, Maselane had previously pleaded not guilty. But his defence changed their argument on Wednesday when they begged the magistrate for mercy, stating that the councillor had been under the influence of alcohol when the crimes happened.

However, the magistrate said that, throughout the trial, Maselane had showed no remorse for his actions.

“It is surprising that you want mercy; when while you were raping these women, you showed no mercy. You held them at gunpoint and made them suck your penis, raped them and robbed them. And whenever you would leave the scene, you would fire a gunshot in the air.”

The convicted rapist used a white Toyota Corolla to offer ladies lifts in the Winterveldt area, only to hold them at gunpoint, rob them of their cellphones and belongings and force them to perform oral sex on him before raping them.

Two of them were 14-year-old girls while the other two were aged 30 and 37.

The newly elected Tshwane ANC leadership was “deeply” disappointed that a member entrusted by the community a perpetrator of abuse against women.

Acting regional spokesperson Tlangi Mogale said the party welcomed the sentencing as it believed in the rule of law.

“The ANC will study the judgment further and in line with our constitution and the council (City of Tshwane) regulations to apply the appropriate remedial actions. The movement commends the ANC Women’s League in the region for their consistent stance against women abuse regardless of the political affiliation.”

– rorisangk@citizen.co.za