THE Tsakane graveyard serial rapist has been sentenced to three life terms plus 30 years imprisonment.
Serial rapist Petetona Abel Lebele (43) was found guilty of four counts of rape and four counts of kidnapping by the Pretoria High Court sitting in Benoni, Ekurhuleni.
These offences were committed against four females between the ages of seven, 13, 16, and 32 over three years, from January 2017 until August 2019, when he was arrested.
The court ordered that his name be included in the National Register for Sexual Offenders.
His first and youngest victim was a seven-year-old girl. On 19 January 2017, when the child was going to school, she met Lebele, who called her and told her to come and collect sweets.
The minor refused and started running. But Lebele caught up with her and dragged her to the cemetery, where he raped her.
In court, he pleaded guilty to the charges against him. In his guilty plea, he told the court that he targeted his victims on their way to school or home.
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He also told the court that he would grab and drag his victims to the Tsakane cemetery, where he raped them.
State prosecutor Advocate Lawrence Sivhidzho told the court that rape is traumatic. It does not only affect victims physically, but emotionally too.
"Lebele targeted defenceless young children and raped them at a cemetery, a respected place where loved ones are resting," he said.
He, therefore, asked the court to impose a harsh sentence that would send a message. Judge Portia Phahlane agreed with the statement that Lebele targeted defenceless victims and that rape was less about sex than power and entitlement to women's bodies.
Daily Sun also spoke to one of the victims who was raped on her way to school in 2018. She said that even though she's left with a wound that'll never heal, she's happy that the man who raped her will be locked up.
The mother of one of the victims said she was happy about the court's decision.
"My daughter is left with a scar that will never heal, so I'm in no position to feel sorry for him," she said.
