The Grahamstown High Court has sentenced an 18-year-old youth to five life terms for his part in the gang rape and murder of Somerset East teenager Shirlene Goliath.
In what is believed to be one of the harshest prison sentences imposed on a teenager, Judge Jimmy van Rensburg ordered that Xolile Kuzuza Oliphant serve four life sentences for repeatedly raping of Goliath and one for murdering her.
Goliath was found in a pool of mud behind a shack in New Brighton, Somerset East, in April last year. She had been raped and strangled.
Oliphant’s 15-year-old accomplice, who could not be named because of his age, was sentenced to 15 years’ jail for the rape.
However, the 15-year-old youth would spend the next 27 years in jail as he was also recently convicted for the rape and murder of another young woman from Somerset East. In that case, he was sentenced to an effective 12-year jail term.
Oliphant was also convicted of stealing the murdered teen’s takkies, for which he was sentenced to a further nine months.
His sentences would run concurrently.
The two youths were found not guilty of the rape and murder of another Somerset East woman, Nomthamsanqa Bucwa, who was murdered in almost identical circumstances on the same night and in the same vicinity in which Goliath was murdered and raped.
State Advocate Alan De Jager, who prosecuted the two youths, said the rape and murder of Goliath was particularly shocking and he was satisfied that the harsh sentence would act as a deterrent to other youth. – Sapa