Komani serial rapist sentenced to four life terms

A 41-year-old Mlungisi man has been sentenced to four life terms after being linked through DNA evidence to four rape cases committed between 2013 and 2015.

Khaya Masiba was sentenced by the Komani Regional Court on August 20, 2026. He was also declared unfit to possess a firearm.

Eastern Cape police spokesperson Captain Yolisa Mgolodela said the first case dated back to June 2013, when a woman was attacked, assaulted, stabbed and raped after returning from a tavern at night.

The victim opened a rape case at Mlungisi SAPS. Masiba was arrested, but the matter was struck off the court roll pending DNA laboratory results.

In March 2014, another woman was walking in Mlungisi after getting out of a vehicle following an argument with her husband when she was accosted by two men near the Mlungisi cemetery.

According to Mgolodela, the men dragged her to the cemetery and raped her before taking her to a shack in Mlungisi. A rape case was subsequently opened with Mlungisi police.

A third attack took place in August 2015 when a woman walking towards Khayelitsha Location was confronted by four men on Bulawayo Street.

Police said she attempted to escape by running into a nearby yard, but one of the men followed her, caught her and dragged her back towards the street, where she was strangled and raped.

Another rape case was opened at Mlungisi SAPS.

The fourth case occurred in October 2015 when a woman was attacked while sleeping in her shack. Mgolodela said she woke to find a man touching her and attempting to remove her clothes.

When she resisted, she was assaulted and raped. The attacker fled through a window.

The cases were investigated by Sergeant Yongama Hillary Mkabile of the Komani Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit.

According to Mgolodela, DNA results received in July 2019 linked Masiba to all four cases.

He was traced and rearrested that month and remained in custody until he was sentenced by the Komani Regional Court on August 20.

Chris Hani District Commissioner Major-General Rudolph Adolph welcomed the sentence and praised Mkabile for his work on the investigation.

The sentence comes about a month after Mkabile secured a life sentence in another rape case finalised in the Cacadu Regional Court on July 24.