| 2024/04/06 |
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Media Statement
POLOKWANE – The Provincial Commissioner of Limpopo, Lieutenant General Thembi Hadebe welcomed the long jail term meted to a 46-year-old accused by the Mahwelereng Regional Court, on Friday, 05 April 2024, for rape and robbery cases. The accused promised the victims job between 2017 and 2021 in the Mokopane policing precinct. William Khazamola Maphupha (46) was convicted and sentenced to 60 years imprisonment for three counts of rape and 45 years for three counts of robberies. Sentences of robberies will run concurrently with the rapes sentences. These sentences come after the court heard that the accused robbed and raped three female victims aged 26, 32, and 33 separately at Mokopane. He applied the same method of operation (modus operandi) by promising the victims’ jobs. In one of the incidents that occurred on 29 May 2021, the victim met the accused who was unknown to her in Mokopane town. He promised her a job, and they exchanged contact numbers. The following day, he phoned her and scheduled a meeting in town. The woman arrived, and the two walked together along Percy Fyfe. While on the way, the accused produced a knife, threatened the victim, and thereafter dragged her into a bushy terrain. He raped and robbed her of her belongings. The three victims reported the incident to the police on separate occasions. The cases were assigned to Sergeant Frans Lesetja Langa of Mokopane FCS (Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences) Unit. Following further intensive investigations, the accused was traced, arrested and positively linked with the three cases. The accused was kept in custody with no bail until his ultimate incarceration.
“The sentences will serve as a deterrent to all those who take advantage of the vulnerable groups, being women and children,” concluded Lieutenant General Hadebe.
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