40 years in jail for rape

The 27-year-old Theophilus Baloyi was slapped with a 40-years jail term on two counts of rape when he appeared in the Giyani Magistrate's Court last week.

A resident at Ribungwani village near Giyani, the accused had raped a 14-year-old girl in 2014 and another girl (17) in 2016.

These incidents were reported to the police and the cases were then assigned to D/Const Conny Mabunda, attached to the SAPS's Giyani Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences (FCS) Unit. She started with investigations that led to the arrest of the accused and his subsequent sentencing.

The South African Police Service's provincial commissioner, Lt-Gen Nneke Ledwaba, welcomed the sentence on both charges and commended the investigating officer, who had worked tirelessly to ensure that "the criminal was removed from society for a long time".

Date:13 February 2020

By: Tshifhiwa Mukwevho

Tshifhiwa Given Mukwevho was born in 1984 in Madombidzha village, not far from Louis Trichardt in the Limpopo Province. After submitting articles for roughly a year for Limpopo Mirror's youth supplement, Makoya, he started writing for the main newspaper. He is a prolific writer who published his first book, titled A Traumatic Revenge in 2011. It focusses on life on the street and how to survive amidst poverty. His second book titled The Violent Gestures of Life was published in 2014.

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