/ 6 August 2004

Yeoville rapist jailed for life

Yeoville serial rapist, Fanwell Khumalo (42), was sentenced in the Johannesburg High Court to a total of more than 270 years in prison on Friday after being convicted on 103 counts of rape, kidnapping and indecent assault. He received 42 life sentences and may never be considered for parole.

Khumalo was convicted by judge Max Labe for raping young schoolgirls over a three-year period. He apparently gained the trust of the children by pretending to be a policeman. Throughout the trial, Khumalo has maintained his innocence despite 23 positive DNA tests from samples taken from victims and their clothing.

”I apologise for wasting taxpayers’ money on this [18-month] trial that could have been used for the sick and hungry,” he told the court on Wednesday, while still professing his innocence.

Khumalo, a former chef who used to cater for visiting Hollywood stars at Gold Reef City, was arrested on March 7, 2001.

Psychologist Gerard Labuschagne, who was called by the prosecution to place aggravating factors before the court, testified that there was ”no possibility the accused will be rehabilitated”.

He classified Khumalo as a ”paedophile and serial rapist”, saying serial rapists had a compulsion to rape but knew the difference between right and wrong.

”Serial rapists almost never stop their activities of their own accord,” said Labuschagne, a police senior superintendent in charge of the investigative psychology unit in Pretoria.

He added that serial rapists often became serial murderers. In the beginning Khumalo committed a rape a month. Before his arrest this had escalated to a number of rapes a month.

Labuschagne said in South Africa there were no specialised programmes to treat serial rapists in prison. – Sapa