Durban — A KwaZulu-Natal regional court has sentenced two men to life imprisonment for dragging a daughter from her mother and taking turns raping her.
KZN police spokesperson Colonel Robert Netshiunda said that thorough investigative work by the Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit (FCS) detectives has ensured that Sifiso Bertwell Mbhele, 32, and Sanele Ngubane, 28, were imprisoned after the uMlazi Regional Court convicted them of rape, kidnapping, assault with intent to inflict grievous bodily harm and robbery with aggravating circumstances and duly sentenced each of them to life imprisonment and an additional 28-year jail term on August 1, 2023.
Netshiunda said that on January 5, 2020, at night, a 21-year-old woman was walking with her mother along the M35 Road in uMlazi when they came across Mbhele and Ngubane who they knew.
He said that Mbhele and Ngubane assaulted the mother and told her that they wanted her daughter. They then forcefully dragged the victim to Malukazi Road where they took turns raping her until the morning of the following day.
“Investigative prowess by the FCS officers proved all the charges beyond any reasonable doubt and the two accomplices were sentenced to 15 years in jail for robbery with aggravating circumstances, five years behind bars for kidnapping, seven years facing prison walls for assault with intent to inflict grievous bodily harm, plus 18 months for a count of assault; all these sentences were imposed on top of the ultimate life imprisonment sentence. The court ruled for the sentences to run concurrently,” Netshiunda said.
According to the 2019/2020 (April to March) crime statistics, 42 289 rapes were reported in South Africa.
Of those rapes, 8 017 rapes were reported in KZN.
UMlazi police station was one of the top 30 stations where rapes were reported with 293 rapes reported and sitting in second position behind Inanda police station with 297 rapes.
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