Harrismith serial rapist, murderer handed life sentence

A community in Harrismith, Free State, now sleeps easier after a serial rapist and murderer was handed a sentence that will see him languish in a jail cell for a long time after an eight-year reign of terror.

Muzi Wiseman Sithebe Twala, 34, was on Tuesday found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment by the Bloemfontein High Court sitting at the Thabo Mofutsanyane Secure Justice Centre.

In a statement, Free State SAPS spokesperson Brigadier Motantsi Makhele said Twala was convicted of committing a series of rapes, murder and thefts between 2011 and 2018.

“Twala was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment each for four counts of rapes, 12 years for murder and three years each on seven counts of theft. Therefore, he will spend life term imprisonment sentence, as count 2 to 14 runs concurrently,” said Makhele.

During the trial, it was discovered that between the period of August 2011 and February 2018, Twala threatened complainants when fetching cattle from grazing field, armed with a panga and knobkerrie, in Intabazwe near Harrismith.

“He finally raped two boys and took their cell phones,” Makhele said in the statement.

In a separate incident, Twala encountered two friends in Tshiame. He appeared from behind and offered to carry their bags. He demanded money from them and took their property, and raped the woman while holding a knife.

It was further discovered that in January 2018, a minor was en route from school near the Tshiame graveyard. Twala again appeared from behind, grabbed and threatened the girl with a firearm. He raped her and took her cell phone.

In February of the same year, a victim was with a companion (who was killed in the incident) in a car parked in an open space in Intabazwe, near the N3 in Harrismith. The woman told the court that while sitting in the car, they heard a gunshot and they ran in different directions. While running, the woman heard another gunshot. She was later grabbed by Twala, who took her back to the car where he raped her before taking her cellphone.

The victim ran home and called the police and an ambulance.

Twala was positively linked through DNA in all of the above cases.