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Well-known human rights activist Fiona Nicholson (who is also the founder of the Thohoyandou Victim Empowerment Programme) commended the justice system for having sentenced a rapist to two life sentences.
This follows after the Thohoyandou Regional Court handed down two life terms to Maemu Daniel Libonndo for raping two teenage sisters. The 38-year-old rapist was sentenced last Thursday.
Libonndo's arrest and subsequent sentencing follows incidents that happened at Maniini in November 2010. The court heard that Libonndo was masquerading as a priest and offered to pray for the sick father of the two teenage girls and also for the family. During the ‘prayer session’, the convict took the first girl to another room on the pretext that she was possessed by a tokoloshe and told the family that he wanted to perform special prayers for her. The priest then ordered the girl to remove her clothing before raping her.
The girl only talked about her ordeal after two days after learning that her sister had also been raped.
Libonndo was arrested shortly after the incidents were reported to the police. Forensic tests confirmed the police's suspicion that he had raped the girls. This evidence led to his conviction and caused Magistrate Coetzee's decision to hand down two life terms to him.
Limpopo police spokesperson Lt Col Ronel Otto commended the police for a job well done. She said members of the Family Violence and Sexual Offences Unit were also investigating the possibility that he might have been involved in even more incidents where he posed as a priest and then raped women and children.
The Provincial Commissioner of the South African Police Service in Limpopo, Lt Gen Simon Mpembe, congratulated the investigating officer, D/Cst Ndivhuho Takalani of the FCS Unit at Thohoyandou, and said that the dedication and perseverance of police members like him would lead to even more arrests and convictions. He said that this heavy sentence handed down during Child Protection week should serve as a warning and deterrent to would-be rapists. “We will hunt them down; they will never get away with it,” he said.
On learning about the sentence, Ms Fiona Nicholson of TVEP said she was just worried that the case had dragged on for far too long. ‘We have been monitoring the case. We are also scrutinizing some (other) cases in order to find out if the same man was not involved," she said.
Date:11 June 2012
Elmon Tshikhudo started off as a photographer. He developed an interest in writing and started submitting articles to local as well as national publications. He became part of the Limpopo Mirror family in 2005 and was a permanent part of the news team until 2019.
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