A sexual predator who preyed on vulnerable women and performed loathsome acts of sexual violence on them was sentenced to six life imprisonment terms on Wednesday.
Judge Elna Revelas told the Gqeberha high court that Thembinkosi Ngcolomba had treated his victims with disrespect, bullied them and threatened them.
While Revelas said she was amazed by the naiveté of some of Ngcolomba’s victims who boarded taxis to meet a man they only knew from social media with “romance in mind”, it was not the women who were on trial and their naiveté could not be considered a compelling and substantial circumstance to excuse his actions.
“Clearly people should be more careful how they deal with [online] dating sites,” Revelas said.
Dubbed the Facebook serial rapist, Ngcolomba used the popular social media site under an alias to lure his victims to meet him, predominantly in the NU29 Motherwell area.
He would then lead them to secluded bushes and rape them under threat.
In almost all the incidents, his modus operandi was the same.
He would strike up a conversation with a woman and then convince her to meet him.
While they were already on their way to meet him, he would send a WhatsApp message to say a relative would meet them and take them to him.
Each time the relative would, in fact, be Ngcolomba.
He would lead them to a nearby bushy area and threaten them either with a knife, screwdriver or gun, before raping them and robbing them of their valuables.
His two-year reign of terror ended on February 16 2018 when he was arrested during a sting operation after raping his final victim two days earlier.
Between May 2016 and February 2018, Ngcolomba raped nine women aged between 18 and 33, some more than once.
The unmarried and unemployed father of four pleaded not guilty to 12 counts of rape, nine of trafficking people for the purpose of sexual exploitation and seven of robbery with aggravating circumstances at the start of his protracted trial.
On Tuesday, he was found guilty of 11 counts of rape.
During the trial, Ngcolomba claimed the sex in most of the incidents was consensual but Revelas found that the evidence collected, and testimony by his victims, proved otherwise.
“[Ngcolomba] treated his victims with disrespect, he bullied and threatened them,” she said.
“The rapes in all incidences were carefully planned.
“The evidence clearly shows [Ngcolomba] to be a serial rapist.
“[Ngcolomba] exploited the naiveté of others for his own purposes, that being his own ideas of how to treat women.
“The crimes were repetitive [and] the sentence imposed should be in line with protecting women from this predator and to deter other potential serial rapists,” Revelas said.
He was sentenced to six life terms for rape where the act was committed more than once, 20 years for each of the five counts of rape where a single act was involved, and 15 years behind bars for each of the six robbery charges.
With Revelas ordering some of the sentences to run concurrently, Ngcolomba will serve an effective life plus 20 years in prison.
Ngcolomba’s application for leave to appeal against his conviction and sentence was dismissed by Revelas.
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