MAKHADO – Robert Munyai (22) is now gone for good from the community, after the Makhado Regional Court found him guilty of raping a 6-year-old girl at Mpheni Block A in 2003 and sentenced him to life imprisonment.

In a separate incident, the Waterval SAPS on Monday arrested Patrick Mkhari (26) from Ka-Chavani, who has been at large for several weeks. Mkhari was out on bail after allegedly raping a 26-year-old victim. It is also alleged that he strangled her to death in April 5, 2003, at Chavani Village.

The deceased was found next to the road the following day. According to Insp RA Masonto of the Waterval SAPS, Mkhari was out on R2 000 bail and failed to appear in the Makhado Regional Court on April 13, 2005. “After he failed to appear in court, we immediately resumed searching for him, because there was also another pending case of public violence against him. Following a tip-off from the community, we arrested him inside a bus,” he said.

Masonto said that Mkhari appeared in the Waterval Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday on a public violence charge, and he was not found guilty.

In another rape case that was finalised in the Makhado Regional Court last week, a 44-year old resident of Ha-Chavani received a life sentence for raping his 7-year-old daughter between 2000 and 2002.

According to Insp Masonto, when the man raped his daughter, he was no longer staying his wife. “When the wife left him, he remained with his two children. When the mother visited her childern on December 3, 2002, she noticed that her daughter was not well and she took her to the Bungeni Health Centre. It was confirmed at the centre that the young girl had been sexually abused on several occasions.