POLOKWANE – Acting Provincial Police Commissioner, Major General Samuel Manala has welcomed the long jail sentences meted out to a 21-year-old man who raped and robbed two women.
The Polokwane Magistrate’s Court, this week sentenced Lebo Starkuk Matsebedi to an effective 20 years’ imprisonment without fine for two counts of rapes and an additional five years’ imprisonment for theft. The court also declared him unfit to possess a firearm. In a statement, Police Spokesperson, Col Moatshe Ngoepe said the sentence follows separate incidents in 2018 which occurred in the Senwabarwana policing area outside Polokwane.
The first incident happened in the early hours of 7 July 2018. “The accused broke into the home of the victim, a mother of two, at around 02:20 and threatened her with a knife before he raped her and robbed her of several items including money. The woman was raped in front of two minor children.
Meanwhile, on 5 September 2018 he robbed a couple of R1 000 and raped the female victim. The 30-year-old woman was pregnant at the time. “He approached the couple and demanded money and their cellphones. In the process the accused chased the husband away then raped the female victim.”
The police were notified and cases of rape were opened at the Seshego Police Station.
Ngoepe added that the cases were assigned to Det Sgt Winnie Mankwatsi Rashalaha of the Saps Seshego Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences (FCS ) Unit and through her meticulous investigation the accused was positively linked to the two incidents, was arrested and subsequently sentenced.
