LIMPOPO. – A 28-year-old man from Sesalong village has been sentenced to an effective 20 years imprisonment for the rape of a 95-year-old woman. The court ordered that his name be placed on the national register of sexual offenders, but that his identity be withheld to protect the victim.
Mashudu Malabi, NPA spokesperson, says the Polokwane High Court sentenced the accused to 20 years for rape, as well as a further eight years for housebreaking with intent to commit rape. Because the sentences run concurrently, this brings the effective sentence to 20 years. The man pleaded guilty in terms of section 112 of the Criminal Procedure Act.
The court heard that the victim, the grandmother of his friend, was known to him. He went to look for his friend at the woman's house on four October 2025. He entered the house through an open door where the elderly woman was alone. According to his admission of guilt, he told her he wanted to have sexual intercourse with her. When she refused, he overpowered her and raped her twice before leaving. Community members apprehended him the following day and handed him over to police. DNA evidence later linked him positively to the crime.
The state prosecutor, Advocate Lerato Mohlaka, submitted a victim impact statement to the court describing the profound emotional impact of the crime on the woman. The state requested the court to impose the prescribed minimum sentence of life imprisonment, but the court imposed an effective sentence of 20 years.
This article is an automatic English translation of a Nuusflits article originally published in Afrikaans. Read the Afrikaans original.
