Jail Sentence
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The Pretoria High Court sitting in Palm Ridge found serial rapist Nkosinathi Emmanuel Phakathi guilty of an astonishing 90 counts of rape.

In addition, he also faced four counts of compelled rape, three counts of causing a child to witness a sexual act, 43 counts of kidnapping, two counts of assault, as well as four counts of theft.

Phakathi committed these offenses in and around Ekurhuleni from 2012 to 2021, according to National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) Regional Spokesperson Lumka Mahanjana.

Most of his victims were school-going children, the youngest 9 years old and the oldest a 44-year-old woman.

"The state intends to ask the court to impose a sentence that will send a strong message that such offenses of gender-based violence will not be tolerated," said Mahanjana.

In March of last year, he was arrested for attempting to go back to one of his victim's homes--an act that the authority said resulted in police shooting him in the leg, an injury that has since led to the amputation of his limb.

Lumka stated that Phakathi had pleaded guilty to 148 charges. His guilty plea statement was read aloud in court, in which he confessed to targeting his victims while they were going to or coming back from school or work in the morning or evening. However, he also attacked some victims in their own homes. He would pretend to be an electrician coming to fix a geyser or other household appliances and rape them.

"He raped some of his victims in the presence of children, in some instances when raping more than one person at a time, he made the other watch while raping the other, whereafter he would flee the scene," she detailed.

Phakathi was arrested and linked to some of the offenses through DNA evidence, as well as a modus operandi linkage report.

The matter was postponed to 8 and 9 December, for the pre-sentencing report and continuation of sentencing proceedings, following Phakathi's appearance on Tuesday.

A week after President Cyril Ramaphosa said gender-based violence ought to be considered the main "pandemic" affecting South Africa, the verdict has come in that not a day goes by without new reports of "horrendous" crimes.

Police data showed rapes and sexual offenses went up 13 percent between 2017/18 and 2021/2022, while murders of women were up 52 percent in the first three months of this year compared to the same period last year, according to Ramaphosa.

There is no denying that rape crimes in South Africa are a serious problem. More needs to be done to ensure the safety of women in the country. This includes better law enforcement, education, and support for victims.