Court Hands Rapist Multiple Life Sentences

The Mpumalanga Division of the High Court has sentenced 34-year-old Bongani Thembinkosi Nkosi to four life terms plus ten years’ imprisonment for a series of brutal rape cases committed in Jeppes Reef, Nkomazi, between 2016 and 2019.

Nkosi pleaded guilty to the crimes, which involved several young women and included violent break-ins, kidnappings and repeated sexual assaults. Although some secondary charges were withdrawn as part of a plea agreement, he received life sentences on three rape counts and an additional ten years for another.

The first attack occurred in February 2016, when Nkosi and accomplices stormed a home, robbed the occupants and raped two women, aged 28 and 16, outside in the street. Further attacks in 2018 and 2019 followed the same pattern, with victims aged 19 and 18 taken from their homes and assaulted.

Nkosi was initially arrested in 2018 but later linked to all three cases through continued police investigation. He was finally apprehended in June 2024 during a traditional healers’ initiation in Mgobodzi.

The court also ruled him unfit to own a firearm or work with children, and his name will be added to the Sexual Offenders Register.

Acting Provincial Commissioner Major General (Dr) Zeph Mkhwanazi said he hoped the sentence would offer some comfort to survivors and their families. He reiterated the SAPS’s commitment to fighting gender-based violence beyond the 16 Days of Activism campaign.