A 33-year-old serial rapist has been handed one of the country’s heaviest sentences with a total of 1,258 years in jail.
Bongani Masuku was handed down a total of 20 life terms and an additional 758 years at the South Gauteng High Court, sitting in Benoni magistrate’s court, for charges including murder, rape, kidnapping, house robbery, robbery and assault
Judge Carla van Veenendaal did not order for the sentences to run concurrently.
Masuku’s eight-year reign of terror between 2010 and last year was localised in the north western townships of Pretoria, which include Soshanguve, Loate, Mabopane and Klipgat, where he and his gang would target young women, rob and rape them.
The gang also committed house robberies with the intention to rob and rape their victims.
He faced 35 counts of rape and a count of murder for killing an off-duty police
officer on January 7 last year
The officer and his partner were on their way home when they were accosted by Masuku and another man
The officer was shot in the stomach. They then dragged the officer’s partner to a secluded area and raped her.
Van Veenendaal described Masuku’s crimes as bearing an element of violence as he and his gang targeted the youngest of victims to rape.
“For eight years, he was a predator … Fathers couldn’t protect their families and daughters from being raped, while mothers couldn’t live in safety,” she said.
Van Veenendaal said though Masuku pleaded guilty to all the charges, he was “arrogant throughout court proceedings and went as far as claiming that they were spoilt for choice with regards to the victims they targeted”.
Their victims were aged between 14 and 27. They would point a firearm at a victim, forcing them to enter their vehicle and driving out to a secluded area where the gang would take turns in raping them.
