- A serial rapist has pleaded guilty to 93 rapes.
- He targeted females aged 12 to 20 for about nine years in Ekurhuleni.
- He is expected to be sentenced next week.
After preying on females – some as young as 12 – in Ekurhuleni for almost a decade, a serial rapist pleaded guilty to 148 charges in the Palm Ridge Magistrate's Court on Tuesday.
Nkosinathi Emmanuel Phakathi, 32, initially faced 203 charges, but 55 of them were withdrawn.
He pleaded guilty to the remaining 148 charges, which include 93 of rape, as well as counts of sexual assault, kidnapping, robbery with aggravating circumstances, theft and possession of an unlicensed firearm.
Phakathi, who preyed on females aged 12 to 20 in Crystal Park, Putfontein, Benoni, and Daveyton has been in prison since his arrest in March 2021. He was shot in the leg while allegedly trying to flee and his leg had to be amputated.
The indictment spelt out Phakathi's reign of terror in Ekurhuleni.
He raped a 12-year-old girl in Benoni in June 2012 and three months later, raped a woman near Sgodi Cemetery in Daveyton.
In 2015, he raped a 15-year-old girl in Barcelona, Benoni. He forced a nine-year-old boy to witness the rape and was charged in connection with that too.
A year later, he sexually abused a 16-year-old girl, forcing a 16-year-old boy to watch it.
Also, in 2016, he forced a 14-year-old boy to sexually abuse two 15-year-old girls in Etwatwa, and later sexually abused them himself.
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On 19 October 2015, he approached two women who were crossing a railway line and threatened them. Warning them that he was armed, he ordered them to follow him and when they got to a field next to the railway line, he instructed them to undress before he raped them.
In March 2017, he sexually abused and raped another 12-year-old, according to the indictment.
The last crime he committed was on the morning of 23 February 2021. He was at a woman's house and asked her to write down her mother's number for him. When she went to her bedroom to fetch some paper, he entered her house.
"He told her that he was a criminal and she should comply with his instructions; otherwise, he will stab her. He ordered her to undress and raped her repeatedly, with and without a condom. Thereafter he left," the indictment read.
Phakathi is expected to be sentenced on 8 November.