Bloemfontein - A Petrus Steyn man who raped various women has been sentenced in the Bethlehem Circuit Court to nine life imprisonment terms, the National Prosecuting Authority said on Thursday.
Free State NPA spokesman Phaladi Shuping said Tshediso Benjamin Mokoena, 37, was sentenced a further 50 years imprisonment on charges of theft, assault, and attempted rape.
Mokoena was linked by DNA to some of the rapes, while some victims identified him during an identification parade.
Shuping said Mokoena’s first victim was a 13-year-old girl from Bethlehem who was forcefully taken away while visiting friends and raped.
A woman from Petrus Steyn was his second victim in April 2009, and his third victim was a 17-year-old girl whose home he had broken into.
Mokoena continued his criminal spree in the eastern Free State area and raped six more women, aged between 13 and 20 years, in March and April 2012.
He was caught in May 2012 when he abducted a 17-year-old girl at gunpoint and raped her in a house through the night.
Shuping said the next morning the rapist gave the girl his contact number with an invitation to call him again.
The girl reported him to police and he was arrested.
Sapa