The Mthatha Regional Court in the Eastern Cape has sentenced a 23-year-old man to life for raping and robbing an 84-year-old granny. Inganathi Ntwanambi raped her at Mahibe Location, Tabase Administrative Area, in the district of Mthatha last year.

Eastern Cape National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Luxolo Tyali said in addition to the charges of rape and robbery, the court convicted Ntwanambi of housebreaking with intent to commit a crime but took all the charges as one sentence. The elderly woman, who was Ntwanambi's neighbour, had just received her monthly pension grant on 06 May last year when she was woken up by a knock on her door. "The person knocking on the door introduced himself as her son, but she refused to open as she could tell that the voice was not that of her son's. However, he kicked the door down and upon entering, demanded R2 000. She told him that she had already paid her debts and offered him R500," Tyali said.

Tyali said Ntwanambi counted the money and told the granny that because it was not enough, she had to pay the remainder with sex. "The man then proceeded to rape her before fleeing. Following her ordeal, the elderly woman went to report it to her neighbours and was able to identify her attacker as one of the young men from her neighbourhood but she did not know his name," Tyali added. The gogo was able to describe his attire and another neighbour suggested that it was Ntwanambi and they went looking for him and found him still wearing the same clothes as described by the granny. According to NPA, when the gogo saw him, she immediately recognised him and he started to apologise, claiming that he did not know what had gotten to him when he committed the crime. "He was arrested and the elderly woman was taken to Sinawe Thuthuzela Care Centre (TCC) for psychosocial and medical treatment," Tyali said, who further said that during the trial, Ntwanambi pleaded not guilty even though he had admitted to having committed the crimes upon his arrest. "Magistrate Shylock Ndengezi found Ntwanambi to be an untruthful witness with 'total disdain of law and the court', and agreed that there were no substantial and compelling circumstances for deviating from the prescribed minimum sentence of life imprisonment," said Tyali.