South Africa News

Serial taxi r@pist sentenced to 340 years in jail

Serial taxi r@pist sentenced to 340 years in jail. Lebogang Mokoena became infamous for what became known as the #QuantumR@pes, a series of serial rapes and s.e.xual assaults that took place inside his Toyota Quantum taxi between September 2016 and October 2017.

The judge hopes the imposition of harsher sentences would act as a deterrent to those who commit the violent and traumatic act of rape. Taxi driver Lebogang Mokoena has been handed multiple life sentences after being found guilty of, among other crimes, 13 charges of r@pe.

Mokoena was sentenced on Thursday at the Palm Ridge Magistrates Court in Gauteng.

Lebogang Mokoena

He has received a life sentence for each of his 13 r@pe charges.

Other charges Mokoena was found guilty of include: 9 counts kidnapping, for which he got ten years for each count; 9 counts of pointing of an object that looked like a firearm, for which he received five years per count; and an additional charge of aggravated robbery, for which he received 20 years.

Mokoena pleaded guilty to all charges.

His additional charges, which total 340 years in jail in addition to his life sentences, will run concurrently with them.

Acting Judge Cassim Moosa said: “R@pe is degrading and humiliating. The very act itself is a violent and traumatic infringement of the fundamental right to be free and not to be degraded.

“Violence and abuse against women and children goes on unabated in our society. The public is outraged, and there is increasing pressure on the courts to impose harsher sentences as a deterrent.”

He also noted that Mokoena had not worn a c0nd0m and seemed unconcerned with the risks his victims faced as a result.

Mokoena has been described as unremorseful.SABC’s Chriselda Lewis tweeted from court: “I just approached Lebogang Mokoena who has been sentenced to life imprisonment for a spate of taxi r@pes and I ask him if he is sorry, he says he has nothing to be sorry for.”

Source: The Citizen