Pretoria – The Pretoria High Court sitting in Benoni has sentenced the Tsakane graveyard serial rapist Petetona Abel Lebele, 43, to three life terms and 30 years of direct imprisonment.
Spokesperson for the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) in Gauteng, Lumka Mahanjana said Lebele was convicted on four counts of rape.
“This is after he was found guilty of four counts of rape as well as four counts of kidnapping. These offences were committed against four females, aged 7, 13, 16, and 32 over three years, from January 2017 until August 2019, when he was arrested,” Mahanjana said.
The court ordered that his name be included in the National Register for Sexual Offenders.
“His first and youngest victim was a 7-year-old minor. On 19 January, 2017, when the minor was on her way to school, she met with Lebele, he called her and told her to come to collect sweets,” Mahanjana said.
“The minor refused and started running. However, Lebele caught up with her and dragged her to the cemetery where he raped her.”
Lebele later raped a 32-year-old woman on August 19, 2019. The woman was carrying her -year-old child on her back at the time.
Mahanjana said Lebele pushed the toddler onto the ground and proceeded to rape the mother.
“In court, he pleaded guilty to the charges against him. In his guilty plea, he told the court that he targeted his victims when they were on their way to school or home. He also told the court that he would grab and drag them to the Tsakane cemetery where he raped them,” Mahanjana said.
In aggravation of sentence, State prosecutor advocate Lawrence Sivhidzho told the court that rape is “traumatic, it does not only affect victims physically but emotionally too”.
“Lebele targeted defenceless young children and raped them at a cemetery, a respected place where loved ones are resting,” Sivhidzo said.
He asked the court to impose “a harsh sentence that will send a message”.
Judge Portia Phahlane agreed with submissions made by Lebele, highlighting that the crime of rape was less about sex than about power and entitlement to women’s bodies.
After being sentenced, Lebele applied for leave to appeal his life sentences, which was opposed by the State and denied by the court.
IOL