Serial Rapist Sentenced to Seven Life Terms & 173 Years in Prison

A 30-year-old serial rapist has been sentenced to seven life terms and 173 year in prison for rape, robbery with aggravating circumstances, kidnapping and grievous bodily harm. 

Takalani Mulaudzi from Tshafhasi in Nzhelele appeared in the Pretoria High Court hon Friday. 

Mulaudzi started committing the offences in 2015 in and around Pretoria West when he was just 23 years old. 

He targeted vulnerable women that were either walking alone or in pairs in the evenings and threaten them with an object or a knife, then drag them to the closest veld, rape them, take their belongings before fleeing.

Mulaudzi was arrested on 10 July 2019 at his workplace in Johannesburg, after he was traced through one of the phones he stole and linked to the rapes through DNA. 

During his plea explanation, Mulaudzi denied raping the women multiple times, but admitted to only raping them once at a time, however, the court convicted him on all counts of rape. 

The National Prosecuting Authorities (NPA) Lumka Mahanjana said they welcome the sentence. 

“While in custody Mulaudzi continuously applied to be released on bail several times and National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) successfully opposed all those applications.” 

Prosecutor Advocate Cornelia Harmzen asked the court to impose the maximum prescribed sentence and argued that Mulaudzi had no remorse for his actions.