NO MERCY

KZN COURTS SEND RAPISTS AND FEMICIDE KILLER TO LIFE BEHIND BARS

Courts jails three femicide and rape accused for life as South Africa reels from 11 murdered women found in Ekurhuleni and soaring GBV stats.

By NOSIPHO SOSIBO

DURBAN – KwaZulu-Natal courts have sent a blunt, unflinching message this week: rape and kill a woman in this province and you will grow old in prison.

The hard line from three regional courts – Dundee, Esikhaleni and Scottburgh – comes as South Africa remains on high alert following the discovery of 11 women's bodies in Ekurhuleni, east of Johannesburg, in just over two months since 15 July. Most victims were in their 20s and 30s, some found naked, bound with cable ties, stripped and showing signs of sexual assault.

The numbers explain why that accountability matters. SAPS recorded 569 women murdered between April and June 2026, alongside 9,201 reported rapes. Between January and March 2026, 9,782 rapes and 12,590 sexual offences were reported. In 2025/26, 50,511 GBVF cases were reported, with 30,736 arrests or referrals. More than 60% of rapes happen at home.

SCREWDRIVER KILLER

In Dundee, it was femicide inside a home that should have been safe.

Mandla Petros Mthembu, 55, was sentenced to life by the Dundee Regional Court for murdering his girlfriend Nokuthula Shabalala, 38, in Craigside in September 2025. Mthembu pleaded guilty under Section 112. He told the court that after an argument, Shabalala hit him with a stick. He took it, picked up a screwdriver and stabbed her in the chest. She went to sleep wounded in another bedroom. By morning, she was dead.

LOCKED DOOR HORROR

In Esikhaleni, it was a stranger who broke into a house where a woman was watching over three sleeping children.

Nkosikhona Ndlovu, 20, was sentenced to life for rape, plus five years for housebreaking and 15 years for robbery with aggravating circumstances. The court heard that in the early hours of January 2024, Ndlovu broke in, demanded the woman's laptop password and forced her to transfer money via a banking app before raping her.

When one child woke and came to the room, Ndlovu locked the door and continued. He left with her laptop and goods. She was taken to Ngwelezane Thuthuzela Care Centre. DNA linked him to the crime.

Prosecutor Philani Clarence Mdletshe handed in her Victim Impact Statement, prepared with Court Preparation Officer Ntombi Goodness Chonco. "The incident had ruined her life," she wrote. "Cruel and traumatic." The court declared Ndlovu unfit to possess a firearm and ordered his name entered into the National Register for Sex Offenders.

PREGNANT AND BETRAYED

In Scottburgh, the betrayal was intimate.

Two 30-year-old men, friends of a woman's boyfriend, were both sentenced to life for raping her in Sawoti in September 2020. She was pregnant.

She was alone at her boyfriend's house when the two knocked, asking for him. She said he wasn't there. They waited inside. Then both raped her. They wiped themselves with a towel on the bed, leaving DNA, and fled to Durban.

Prosecutor Thanusha Govender led the evidence of the complainant, her boyfriend and the doctor. With Court Preparation Officer Nokukhanya Mkhize, the complainant wrote of "indescribable pain and emotional trauma." Both men were declared unfit to possess firearms and entered into the sex offenders register.

For the families, no sentence restores what was stolen. But the NPA says this is the work that must continue.

"The NPA welcomes these life sentences imposed by the Dundee, Esikhaleni and Scottburgh Regional Courts," said NPA Regional Spokesperson Natasha Ramkisson-Kara.

"The Thuthuzela Care Centre network has expanded from 55 centres in 2020/21 to 66 centres across the country. The centres provide integrated medical, legal and psychosocial services to survivors of sexual violence, supporting them while contributing to the successful prosecution of offenders."

"Curbing gender-based violence and femicide remains an organisational priority for the NPA. Together with our partners in the Justice, Crime Prevention and Security Cluster, we will continue working to ensure that perpetrators are held accountable and that justice is served for survivors," Ramkisson-Kara added. TQ