SA rapist gets 525 years in jail
By Leonie Wagner
SOUTH AFRICA – Goodbye and good riddance……. That was the attitude of the Johannesburg High Court sitting in Palm Ridge when it sentenced convicted serial rapist Lawrence Mabunda to 525 years in prison yesterday.
Mabunda, 40, was last week found guilty of 21 counts of rape, 13 counts of robbery and one of attempted murder.
The man dubbed the “taxi rapist” would lure women into his taxi pretending to be a Good Samaritan by offering them transport home, only to take them to an open field and rape them at knife point.
He raped his first known victim in August 2009 and continued his raping spree between February and May 2010.
He was finally nabbed in 2013 when his DNA was linked to 14 rape cases that all revealed a similar modus operandi.
Yesterday, Judge Caroline Nicholls sentenced Mabunda to 13 life sentences, one for each of the women he was convicted of raping, as well as 15 years in prison for each of the 13 robbery charges, and five years for the attempted murder charge. This amounts to 525 years in prison, and Nicholls ordered that the sentences should not run concurrently.
Nicholls said to Mabunda: “You have ruined the lives of many women, you are a danger to society and to women . and should be removed from society for as long as the law permits.”
But Mabunda indicated that he plans to appeal against his conviction and sentence.
During the trial six women testified that their partners blamed them for the rape and that they still “hated black men”, suffered from nightmares and lacked interest in sex. Mabunda’s other victims could either not be traced to testify or have died.
Nicholls said the case was a “sad reflection” on South African men who “further victimise” rape victims.
“What is tragic is that the complainants suffered a double trauma at the hands of [Mabunda], firstly by the rape and secondly by their partners who blamed them.”
One woman, who was 22 years old when she was raped, said: “I’m on cloud nine, I’m so happy. It’s a new day for me.” Sowetan
