A Mfuleni community leader has applauded the sentencing of serial rapist Lungile Buhlungu to six life sentences in jail and 50 years’ direct imprisonment.
He was sentenced in the Cape Town High Court on Wednesday 18 June for various crimes, including a spate of rapes and robberies between 2014 and 2019 in and around Mfuleni and Delft. He was arrested in 2020 and linked to the rapes through DNA. After more than five years the curtain finally came down on the marathon trial last week. He was sentenced to life imprisonment for each rape count, five years for each count of assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, five years’ imprisonment for each count of kidnapping, 15 years’ imprisonment for robbery with aggravating circumstances and five years’ imprisonment for illegal possession of a firearm.
Community leader Mkhululi Zuke praised the prosecutors for doing a great job. “We are happy with the judgment, hoping the victim’s families will be relieved about the outcome. Mfuleni is becoming a Sodom. The criminals are doing as they please here. There were times where we felt as if our justice system was failing us because some of the perpetrators were released by the court even though they committed heinous crimes.”
He stated that Buhlungu’s case would send a strong message to other criminals and warned the net was closing in on them.
Provincial police spokesperson Capt Frederick C van Wyk said the investigation revealed the 40-year-old committed his crimes in July 2014, October 2017 and May 2018, in which six women aged 21 to 31 years were lured by him, robbed and violated. He threatened, robbed and raped them at gunpoint after giving them lifts mainly from taverns.
Buhlungu was arrested in November 2020 on several non-related charges, including rape, kidnapping and assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm.
This enabled positive identification with rapes he was accused of committing.
