The Lephalale Regional Court has sentenced two men accused of breaking into one of the accused’s former school teacher’s home and kidnapping and raping her.

Phineas Kgomo, 18, was sentenced to six years for housebreaking, 15 years for robbery with aggravating circumstance and 20 years for rape.

His co-accused Lesiba Mercharson Molokomme, 31, was sentenced to life imprisonment for rape, five years for kidnapping and seven years for theft of a motor vehicle.

On Tuesday, the court ordered that all counts run concurrently with the count of rape.

"Evidence presented in court is that, during the night of 23 November 2018, Kgomo broke into the rented house of his former teacher and threatened her with a knife before robbing her of her belongings such as cellphone, money, bank card and car keys. 

"He then tied her up with an electrical cord and raped her.

"He further took her and put her inside the boot of her car and drove with her to the homestead of his co-accused, Molokomme. Both accused left with her to a nearby ATM and withdrew her money,” said Mashudu Malabi-Dzhangi, spokesperson for Limpopo director of public prosecutions.

Malabi-Dzhangi said the suspects drove to nearby bushes and tied her again with cables, and took turns to rape her.

“The complainant was left in the bushes, but she managed to break loose and ran to the nearest community to seek help. Her vehicle was later found abandoned next to Vianna village, and Kgomo was arrested in possession of the car keys,” Malabi-Dzhangi said.

Both the accused denied all the charges in court and did not show remorse, even though there was overwhelming evidence against them, Malabi-Dzhangi said.

Prosecutor Billy Mudavhi led the evidence of the complainant, who told the court she felt humiliated by this ordeal as Kgomo is her former student, and that she has to deal with the stigma of being known as the teacher who was raped by her student.

The state argued that despite the fact that Kgomo was a minor during this incident, he was the mastermind in this case and has been convicted of a serious offence which was planned.

Regarding Molokomme, the state asked the court not to deviate from the minimum sentence and should take into account that parliament passed sentencing regimes to be implemented appropriately.