[This ridiculous lawless country is a criminal paradise. Jan]

Why were men like these not kept under lock and key? First they raped and were arrested, but somehow they won their freedom again – and then they murdered.

Police were unable to explain on Sunday how one rape suspect managed to obtain bail and how another managed to be freed at all.

Both are behind bars again, but not before they had the opportunity to destroy the lives of others.

On Saturday, one of the men returned to a Sebokeng hostel where last year he raped his first victim, a 27-year-old woman – then raped and murdered a mentally and physically handicapped three-year-old girl.

‘She did not move or make any sound’

Police, who had arrested him while he was in the act of raping the 27-year-old – also mentally handicapped – have failed to offer an explanation for his release.

In Limpopo, a 34-year-old man was released on bail in January after raping his victim for almost a year. Now he faces a charge of murder after his victim, Dorah Mahlawule, 24, was found in a shallow grave last Thursday.

In both cases the suspects would have had to prove exceptional circumstances justifying their release on bail.

Limpopo police Superintendent Moatshe Ngoepe said Mahlawule’s alleged rapist had led police to her grave.

He had apparently kidnapped her while she was walking with her boyfriend in Letsitele, outside Tzaneen, on Tuesday.

Amazed to see him roaming the streets again

The suspect is due to appear in the Letsitele magistrate’s Court on Tuesday.

At the Kwa-Masiza Hostel in Sebokeng, on the Vaal Rand, Sinalo Mbutsi, three, was raped and killed by a family friend, who, The Star learnt during an interview with Sinalo’s traumatised mother, had been caught raping a woman last year but was inexplicably freed.

The 27-year-old unnamed victim confirmed that police had caught the man while he raped her, yet a few days later she saw him in public.

A crying Ntombekhaya Mbutsi recounted on Sunday how she discovered her daughter’s violated, lifeless body.

“I came to my flat and went to the bed where I had left my child. Suddenly I saw a man sleeping next to her, and moments later he woke up and zipped his trousers.

“I touched my child. She did not move or make any sound. Blood was coming from her nose, her trousers were rolled to her feet and when I picked her up, her body was hot. “I screamed out loud and neighbours came and cornered him,” Ntombekhaya said.

She said the rapist was held in her house until police arrived and arrested him. “He came to rape me, and instead found the child and raped her,” Mbutsi said. She revealed that the man had been arrested for raping the 27-year-old woman last year, and took The Star to her home at the hostel.

“He was still raping me when the police came. When he saw them, he ran away. Police fired shots in the air and they caught him,” the woman said.

She had seen her attacker being taken into custody but was amazed to see him roaming the streets again.

“A white police officer came to my house and said he did not know how the man was released. That was the last time I heard from them,” she said. She repeatedly appealed to the authorities to prevent him being given bail.

Vaal Rand police Superintendent Nthabiseng Mazibuko said she was unable to investigate the circumstances which led to his release from custody.

She said the Vaal Rand detective services were unavailable to confirm the attack on the woman, but she confirmed Sinalo’s rape and murder, and promised to investigate the woman’s claims.

When The Star team left the hostel, she again appealed for her attacker not to be released on bail. “He will come back and kill me now,” she said.

This article was originally published on page 1 of The Star on March 21, 2005

Source: Independent Online (IOL)
URL: http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click…/p>