SERIAL RAPIST TO BE SENTENCED

SERIAL RAPIST TO BE SENTENCED

KWAMHLANGA - A sentencing for a 33-year-old serial rapist, Haarmans Nnogana Nakeme Mokoena-Aphane is scheduled to take place tomorrow, the 09^th of September 2015, before the Pretoria North High Court on a series of serious crimes committed in KwaMhlanga between 2011 and 2014.

The accused was arrested during February last year, following an incident where he raped a 17-year-old girl in January of the same year. He was traced and nabbed in his hideout at Dennilton in Limpopo. During further probe, it was discovered that the accused was previously nabbed on the same offence committed during September 2012, where he forcefully took siblings, aged 14 and 19, into a shack in KwaMhlanga and repeatedly raped them together with his accomplice who passed on last year. This case was provisionally withdrawn while the court was waiting for the DNA result.

As the result of the DNA, the accused was linked with four more cases where he targeted victims aged between 17 and 28. In those cases, the High Court heard that the accused used a firearm to threaten the victims, forced them to the nearby bushes of Vezubuhle also in KwaMhlanga and repeatedly raped them as well. In three of those incidents, the victims were accompanied by their partners who were assaulted, robbed of their belongings and chased away.

Mokoena-Aphane was found guilty during a trial at the Pretoria North High Court on the 21^st of August 2015. He is going to be sentenced on 11 counts of rape, eight for armed robbery, two for kidnapping, three for assault with intent to commit grievous bodily harm, as well as possession of unlicensed firearm and ammunition, hence  the sentence.