SOUTH Africans may learn on Wednesday, 2 November why the country’s worst serial rapist, Nkosinathi Phakathi, raped 90 children and women.
He is expected to appear in the South Gauteng High Court, sitting in the Palm Ridge Regional Court, to explain the guilty plea he made on Tuesday.
The 37-year-old from Etwatwa, in Ekurhuleni, pleaded guilty to 90 counts of rape, eight of compelled rape – where he forced children to commit sexual acts and watch him rape, 52 of kidnapping as well as several of theft and assault.
Phakathi sat motionless, resting his head over his crutches in a relatively empty courtroom as close to 200 charges were read out. His right leg was amputated after he was allegedly assaulted by community members during his arrest. All he could say was “guilty” as the presiding judge asked him how he was pleading to each charge.
Most of his victims were young girls, who were raped on their way to school.
The state withdrew more than 40 charges, mainly of possession of a firearm and sexual assault, against him.
He committed these heinous crimes in Benoni, Daveyton, Putfontein and Crystal Park over a nine-year reign of terror that started in 2012 and came to an end on 17 March 2021. This when cops arrested him in Barcelona, Etwatwa.
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His modus operandi was to look for homes where victims would be alone and pretend to be working for the municipality and checking on metre readings.
Phakathi has been linked to the rape cases through DNA analysis and his modus operandi. He joins a list of worst serial rapists, including Moses Sithole, who raped and killed 38 women. The ABC Killer, as Sithole was named because his crimes began in Atteridgeville, continued in Boksburg and ended in Cleveland, serving 2 410 years in jail.
