GIYANI – Two young men will each spend 12 years in jail, after they were found guilty of rape at Gandlanani Village near Giyani.

It was testified in the regional court in Giyani that Movement Mkhavele (19) and an 18-year-old accomplice, whose identity has been withheld, proceeded to the house of a 33-year old woman during the night of July 20, last year.

The woman and her six-year-old daughter were fast asleep when the accused arrived.They broke into the house in which the woman and her daughter were sleeping. They then pulled the woman out of the house and took her to the street.

That is where they raped her, one after the other, at gunpoint. They later let her go back home, under the assumption that the victim did not recognise them, as she is a psychiatric patient. The matter was reported to the police the following day.

It did not take long for the police to arrest the accused, as the two thought they were not known and walked freely in the streets after the incident. They appeared before the Giyani Magistrate's Court on various occasions before the case was referred to the local regional court.

The case was finalised last Friday. They were each sentenced to 12 years in jail.