VUYO MKIZE
THE TESTIMONIES of two eyewitnesses, catching the culprits with a stolen cellphone, and DNA evidence was all the State needed yesterday to convict two Soweto men who had terrorised seven women by breaking into their homes in Bramfischerville and raping them.
Jacinto Chilenge, 26, and Felix Machava, 33, had been facing 36 charges, including rape.
Chilenge was found guilty of six counts of housebreaking and robbery, five counts of rape and two counts of compelling or causing a person 18 years or older to be in the presence of, or watch, a sexual act.
Machava was found guilty of six counts of housebreaking, five counts of rape and three counts of compelling some of the victims’ partners to watch the ordeal. He was also found guilty of one count of possession of a firearm and another of possession of ammunition.
The pair were due to be sentenced today.
The charges relate to incidents that took place between April 2009 and April last year.
Machava faced an additional charge of attempted escape after he tried to flee from police on April 22 last year, the day of his arrest.
Yesterday, Johannesburg High Court Judge Fritz van Oosten said:
“The events that occurred at each of the incidents are strikingly similar. The early hours of the morning was the preferred time, at least two men wore balaclavas. They were armed with firearms, forcibly gained entrance to the houses and one usually remained at or near the entrance door while the other proceeded to the bedroom… They demanded money and cellphones, and finally, one or more of the women present in the house were eventually raped once, and in some instances, more than once.”
The men had denied all allegations against them.
Two State witnesses had testified about events that occurred in the first incident on April 11, 2009. “The identification of the two accused by these witnesses was a so-called dock identification. The dock identification, however, does not stand alone. Their identification is confirmed by the DNA evidence. Accused two’s (Machava) DNA profile can be read into both a swab taken from the complainant as well as from her panty,” the judge said.
The judge added that the identification of the accused by the two witnesses was reliable.
In the second incident, on November 17, 2009, the accused had stolen a phone belonging to a woman after they had broken into the home of two women and raped them.
Later that morning, Judge Van Oosten said, Machava, in the presence of Chilenge, had sold the phone to Karmoni Maswangayi, an acquaintance, who testified to this effect, linking the two to the crimes.