A man who raped 21 girls at his initiation school has been sentenced to 17 life terms.
Johan Jabulani Mlombo, 51, was convicted on 17 counts of rape and three counts of sexual assault by the Nelspruit Circuit of the North Gauteng High Court on Friday.
Mlombo and his wife, Sister Mapalese Khoza, 48, were facing 49 counts of rape, attempted rape, sexual assault and assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm.
Khoza was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment for assault to cause grievous bodily harm and six months for common assault which were both suspended for three years.
Sowetan reported early this year that the girls were raped in August 2012 and they were between the ages of nine and 17.
The rapes were carried out at the couple's initiation school in Mahushu outside Hayzview in Mpumalanga.
The girls told the court that Khoza lined them up and ordered them to strip naked and led them into a "dark room" where Mlombo stood ready to rape them in what they were told was their "big initiation into womanhood".
Khoza told the court in June that she had ordered the girls into the dark room to get smeared with muthi that would protect them against "ghosts and witchcraft".
She denied that she allowed her husband to have sex with the initiates in the dark room.
"The only thing I knew is that he [Mlombo] was going to sprinkle and rub muthi on them," she told the court.
"I did not see any of the initiates crying [after coming out of the dark room]. Had the initiates experienced a problem inside [the room] they would have told me."
However, one girl testified in March that Khoza had sworn at her for walking out of the room where she had been raped by Mlombo.
The girl, who was 11 years old at the time, said that a painful thrust by Mlombo's penis into her vagina prompted her to scream out loud and leave the dark room.
"La-Khoza ordered me to return," she said at the time.
"I met La-Khoza again on my way out [the second time]; she told me to keep whatever happened in the dark room a secret."
Some of the girls testified that Mlombo smeared a liquid substance on their breasts and body before inserting his fingers and penis into their genitals, ordering them to push their bodies into his.
He allegedly also complimented some for being more "delicious" than others. A girl who was 14 when she was raped testified that Mlombo was only wearing a cloth around his waist when he attacked her.
"He told me to keep quiet as this was my real initiation. He asked for my surname while he was busy fondling my breasts. He told me to lie flat on my back on a grass mat. He kneeled in front of me between my legs. I was naked."
macupeb@sowetan.co.za
Initiation school head gets life for child rape
A man who raped 21 girls at his initiation school has been sentenced to 17 life terms.
Johan Jabulani Mlombo, 51, was convicted on 17 counts of rape and three counts of sexual assault by the Nelspruit Circuit of the North Gauteng High Court on Friday.
Mlombo and his wife, Sister Mapalese Khoza, 48, were facing 49 counts of rape, attempted rape, sexual assault and assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm.
Khoza was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment for assault to cause grievous bodily harm and six months for common assault which were both suspended for three years.
Sowetan reported early this year that the girls were raped in August 2012 and they were between the ages of nine and 17.
The rapes were carried out at the couple's initiation school in Mahushu outside Hayzview in Mpumalanga.
The girls told the court that Khoza lined them up and ordered them to strip naked and led them into a "dark room" where Mlombo stood ready to rape them in what they were told was their "big initiation into womanhood".
Khoza told the court in June that she had ordered the girls into the dark room to get smeared with muthi that would protect them against "ghosts and witchcraft".
She denied that she allowed her husband to have sex with the initiates in the dark room.
"The only thing I knew is that he [Mlombo] was going to sprinkle and rub muthi on them," she told the court.
"I did not see any of the initiates crying [after coming out of the dark room]. Had the initiates experienced a problem inside [the room] they would have told me."
However, one girl testified in March that Khoza had sworn at her for walking out of the room where she had been raped by Mlombo.
The girl, who was 11 years old at the time, said that a painful thrust by Mlombo's penis into her vagina prompted her to scream out loud and leave the dark room.
"La-Khoza ordered me to return," she said at the time.
"I met La-Khoza again on my way out [the second time]; she told me to keep whatever happened in the dark room a secret."
Some of the girls testified that Mlombo smeared a liquid substance on their breasts and body before inserting his fingers and penis into their genitals, ordering them to push their bodies into his.
He allegedly also complimented some for being more "delicious" than others. A girl who was 14 when she was raped testified that Mlombo was only wearing a cloth around his waist when he attacked her.
"He told me to keep quiet as this was my real initiation. He asked for my surname while he was busy fondling my breasts. He told me to lie flat on my back on a grass mat. He kneeled in front of me between my legs. I was naked."
macupeb@sowetan.co.za
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