Sakhile Bhekisisa Mhlungu makes his way to the court holding cells. Photo by Lyse Comins
The South Coast serial rapist has begged for mercy and asked his victims for forgiveness for his “evil deeds”, saying Satan may have “possessed” him.
Sakhile Bhekisisa Mhlungu, 46, was testifying in mitigation of sentencing on Monday after he was found guilty of 19 charges including rape, kidnapping, robbery and discharging a firearm, in the Scottburgh magistrate’s court. He pleaded guilty to all charges earlier this month after police collected DNA evidence linking him to the rapes.
Mhlungu prowled the streets of small towns where he either offered lifts or forced his victims aged 11 to 17, as well as one 22 year-old woman, into his vehicle at gunpoint, before driving them to a secluded area such as a forest or a bridge where he raped them. He committed these crimes from April 2019 to March 2022,
Mhlugu told the court that he is a married, self-employed concrete block maker with a grade five education, who has three minor and two adult unemployed children, and that he is the sole breadwinner. He said he had caused “embarrassment” to himself and his family and asked for their, his victims and the court’s forgiveness for “transgressing the law to do the evil deeds that I did”.
“What I wanted to say to the court, to the victims and the families of the victims as well as to my family [is] I am very sorry for what I have done. I am entirely remorseful,” Mhlungu said.
“I am not going to say what the court is doing to me isn’t right… I am prepared to accept the sentence that the court is going to pass on me today because it will also let the victims feel justice is being done.”
Asked by magistrate Asheena Bacharam what motivated him to commit the spate of rapes, and to target young teenagers, he said: “I really don’t know how to put it, I don’t know whether it was Satan who possessed me, I don’t know what to say.”
He said he did not know why he had preyed on young girls, kidnapping some as they walked home from school.
“I am begging for the court’s mercy, even though I know the court will punish me … I am highly apologetic to the victims and sorry for what I have done but I ask for the court … to bear in mind that my children are going to suffer because of my deeds,” he said.
“I ask for the court’s leniency to at least give me a sentence of 25 years and to also consider my age, that I may not make those 25 years.”
He said his business had struggled since his arrest and incarceration in Westville Prison in March 2022, and some of his cows were sick and others had got lost because he was not there to tend them.
Bacharam asked him whether he had considered offering financial assistance to the victims, some who had struggled to get counselling because of the high cost of transport to hospital. He said he could ask his family to sell one of his cows, which were estimated to be worth R14 000 to R18 000 to assist them.
Mhlungu’s attorney, Leslie Pillay, argued that there are “substantial and compelling circumstances” for the court to deviate from the prescribed minimum sentence of life imprisonment.
Pillay said Mhlungu had “pleaded guilty and in so doing he has displayed that he is remorseful” and had spared his victims the secondary trauma of having to testify in court, not leaving the burden on the state to prove the case against him. He said Mhlungu is prepared to undergo counselling in prison for rehabilitation and was pleading for mercy.
Arguing in aggravation of sentencing state prosecutor Active Njakazi read out the statements of several victims.
He said the effect of rape was “severe and permanent”.
According to the statements, some victims are now terrified of men, and experience trauma every time they see a gun or a white bakkie. They asked that Mhlangu be punished severely for his crimes and that he be left to “rot” in prison for the pain he inflicted.
“That is a horrible experience for a young girl experiencing a sex act for the first time, with an adult man like the accused raping her in a forest at gunpoint. They have completely changed from what they were because of the accused, some have changed their sexuality, in addition to the trauma they were going through,” Njakazi said.
“Some are being victimised at school because the kids are gossiping about them and they are scared to go to school. Women in this country pride themselves on their bodies and take care of their bodies but the victims of [Mhlangu] will always have in their minds that …they were raped by a stranger …and this will affect them in their future relationships.”
He said the accused was guilty of serious offences and there were “interesting points” to note, one being that the crimes were “clearly premeditated” and committed over several years.
“If the accused was not arrested, no one knows who was going to be the next victim and what was going to happen to that victim. It took about three years or so and eventually [Mhlangu] could not hide and he was arrested,” Njakazi said.
He argued that Mhlangu had only pleaded guilty when he realised he had no chance of being acquitted because the DNA evidence connected him to the rapes.
“Rape is a very serious offence in this country. All his victims are women and sexual offences against women are very serious and the country was even declared by Interpol as a rape capital because of the actions of people like the accused,” Njakazi said.
He said a previous supreme court of appeal ruling had stated that the courts should “show no mercy” to people who violated women’s rights.
He said another aggravating circumstance is that he did not use a condom and had exposed his victims to sexually transmitted diseases.
“Out of 19 counts that the accused is facing, for three of them the minimum sentence applicable is life imprisonment and therefore I submit there are no compelling factors to deviate from the minimum sentence,” he said.
“Rape of a child when perpetrators believe they can get away with it is far more horrendous. He did it the first time and got away with it, he did it a second time and got away, he did it a third time and got away with it and after two or three years he was caught. At what stage was [he] going to say ‘it is enough I am going to stop’? He behaves like an animal. [Mhlangu] needs to go away for a very long time,” he said.
“When people that commit serious crimes … get light sentences the public will lose confidence in our justice system,” he said.
He asked the court to register Mhlangu on the Sexual Offences Register to prevent him from ever working with children.
Bacharam postponed sentencing until Thursday 28 March.