“We will not rest until all those who torment women and children in this province are permanently removed from our communities.” So says Limpopo provincial police commissioner Lt-Gen Nneke Ledwaba.
Ledwaba was commenting after a 37-year-old man was sentenced to life imprisonment on Monday by the Lulekani regional court in Limpopo.
Donald Mnghemezulu had offered two teenage girls a lift to their home in April 2018. He drove to a hidden spot next to bushes and raped one of them, a 15-year-old.
Police spokesperson Col Moatshe Ngoepe said Mnghemezulu “was driving his BMW motor vehicle around Lulekani township when he met the victim and her friend on their way home from the nearby shops”.
On reaching the secluded spot, “he forced the victim outside and raped her while her friend was locked inside the vehicle”.
He then “dragged the victim back to the car and dropped the two girls next to the victim's home”, said Ngoepe.
A case of rape was opened after the traumatised girl told her grandmother what had happened.
Mnghemezulu was tracked down shortly after the crime.
The investigating officer, Det-Sgt Sharlot Luphondo-Mkansi, of the Phalaborwa family violence, child protection and sexual offences unit, was applauded by the provincial top brass for the skill and evidence that helped put Mnghemezulu behind bars.
