SERIAL rapist Sydwell Mlotshwa (40) has been sentenced to 13 life terms plus an additional 105 years imprisonment by the Mpumalanga division of the High Court sitting in Graskop outside Mbombela on Thursday, 27 January.
Mlotshwa pleaded guilty to all 27 counts of rape and robbery with aggravating circumstances crimes he committed between 2017 and 2018.
This after the court heard how during that period, Mlotshwa brutally raped, robbed and assaulted women around the Hazyview and Calcutta areas.
He would target mostly women who were hitch-hiking, then offer them a lift and detour to nearby bushes before raping and assaulted them while threatening them with a firearm or knife.
Mlotshwa was arrested in 2019 after he was linked to all these cases.
Handing down her judgment, acting judge Kgama Shai said: “The accused is found guilty on 13 counts of rape and sentenced to 13 life imprisonment with additional 105 years imprisonment on 15 counts of robbery with aggravating circumstances and 70 years imprisonment for compelling or causing a person to witness sexual offences. “The robbery with aggravating circumstances sentence will run concurrently with the sentence of compelling person to witness sexual offence. You are also declared unfit to possess a firearm and that his name be entered in the register of the national sex offenders.”
Police commissioner Lieutenant-General Semakaleng Manamela has also applauded the team of detectives for their hard work and thorough investigation that led to the conviction.
