Serial rapist gets life sentence

The outstanding police work of the KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit led to the conviction of a serial rapist.

KZN police spokesman Colonel Robert Netsiunda said the man, Bhekithemba Fanozi Nxumalo, would spend the rest of his life in prison.

The High Court in Mtubatuba had previously sentenced Nxumalo to 12 life sentences and an additional 75 years in prison after finding him guilty in a series of rape cases. The verdict was announced on Monday.

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Netshiunda said Nxumalo’s reign of terror began in July 2012 when he broke into a house in Mdungandlovu Reserve around midnight and found an elderly woman sleeping with her two granddaughters.

Nxumalo demanded money from the grandmother at knifepoint and when he could not find any, he raped her 24-year-old granddaughter. The grandmother and a younger granddaughter were rescued by the same 24-year-old, who managed to call back her brother, who came to their aid. Nxumalo managed to escape into the darkness.

“From then on, Nxumalo continued his rape spree, targeting young women who were walking alone. He would drag them into the bushes and sugar cane fields, threaten them with a knife and then rape them. In most cases, the convicted sex offender raped his victims more than once,” Netshiunda said.

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He added that Nxumalo’s ten-year rape spree came to an abrupt end when police cornered and arrested him in April 2021.

“Nxumalo’s application for appeal was rejected and he was also declared unfit to possess a firearm,” Netshiunda said.