A 29-year-old old self-proclaimed prophet has been sentenced to two terms of life imprisonment for the rape of two minor girls. KwaZulu Natal police spokesperson Colonel Robert Netshiunda said the Zimbabwean national was sentenced by the Kokstad Regional Court.

GUILTY

Netshiunda says the self-proclaimed prophet-cum-traditional healer was found guilty on two counts of rape. He lured the two girls aged 15 and 16 to his house after prophesying that someone was bewitching them. The girls went to his house in Bongweni in the same area on 11 November 2017, where he instructed one of them to drink a certain concoction while the other girl was taken to the river by his assistant for a supposed cleansing.

THE RAPES

Netshiunda said that it is alleged that Khumalo remained behind with the other girl and raped her. "When the assistant came back from the river, he was again sent back to cleanse the girl that had just been raped. Khumalo was opening space for himself to continue his raping spree on the other girl," he said. The Kokstad Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit (FCS) investigated the matter and when the prophet realised that the police were hot on his heels, he fled to Gauteng. "He committed other crimes in Gauteng and later fled to Kwakhiliva in the South Coast where he hid for a few days before police pounced on him," Netshiunda said.

REPEATEDLY RAPED

In another incident, the Durban Magistrates' Court sentenced another Zimbabwean national Clayton Mataya to life imprisonment for rape.

Mataya repeatedly raped his neighbour's daughter when the parents were at work mostly after school. He manipulated the girl's situation and used to call her to his house and raped her. "The child narrated to her mother what their neighbour had been doing to her. The mother took her for a medical examination and the doctor's report confirmed that the child had been sexually violated repeatedly," said Netshiunda adding that, after the matter was reported to the local police, the Brighton Beach Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit hit the ground running in investigating the matter and Mataya was arrested a few days later.