Sergeant Nkoana: Husband, father and hunter of rapists

Sergeant Johnson Motlalepula Nkoana, who wanted to be a playwright, became a policeman purely by chance. But, as fate would have it, the father of five has become a relentless and efficient hunter of rapists.

His speciality is putting away sex predators: he was responsible for bringing down serial rapist Thabani Victor Zondo, who terrorised communities in Brakpan, Nigel, Tsakane and Zonkizizwe for over four years. Zondo, 33, and his unknown accomplice kidnapped, repeatedly raped and robbed their victims of their belongings, with the first case dating back to 2011 – and one victim was only 15 years old at the time.

Nkoana, 41, who joined the SA Police Service in 2004, was assigned the case in 2015, and tracked down and arrested Zondo in the Free State. The Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks) in the province had arrested Zondo on an unrelated case of hijacking and forensic evidence linked to a string of unsolved crimes in Gauteng.

On Thursday, the High Court in Pretoria, sitting in the Benoni Magistrate’s Court, sentenced Zondo to six life terms and a further 237 years sentence on 31 charges ranging from rape, attempted murder to robbery with aggravating circumstances and kidnapping.

“It was not my aim to join the police; my dream was to write dramas and movies. One of my friend forced me to go with him to submit applications and actually encouraged me to apply. I was successful and he was not.”

Nkoana is consistent in securing hefty convictions for sex predators. These include the conviction of serial rapist Amos Mphikeleli Ngubeni, who was in September handed 10 life terms and a further 177 year jail term by the same court on 28 charges – 13 of which were rape.

Ngubeni was positively linked to a series of rape cases in Tsakane and Duduza (Ekurhuleni, Gauteng), Balfour (Mpumalanga), Thabazimbi (Limpopo), and Umkomaas (KwaZulu-Natal). Of all the cases he has worked, the case of Kathorus serial child rapist Sifiso Makhubo, who raped more than 50 children around Thokoza, Katlehong and Vosloorus, stands out.

“I was just a student in Thokoza back in 2005, when I was asked to open my first case, taking a statement from an eight-year-old, he said. I was hurt after opening that case. Little did I know that down the line in the next two years I will open 10 more cases of kids between the ages of eight and 13 years.”

Nkoana decided to become a detective to hunt down the rapist and, in 2011, drew about 60 dockets of the same modus operandi and managed to arrest Makhubo the following year. But Makhubo escaped paying for his crimes and committed suicide in custody.

Nkoana’s biggest wish is for the parole system to be abolished for perpetrators of gender-based violence (GBV), saying though he was attached to the provincial commercial crime unit, he would always take on a GBV case and execute the investigation with distinction.

When he is not hunting down rapists, Nkoana is at home watching movies with his wife and children. He also enjoys reading crime novels – especially those about serial killers, rapists and organised crime.

– siphom@citizen.co.za

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