By Staff Reporter
While women across South Africa took to the streets this week to protest against gender-based violence, a Limpopo court was sending its own message: justice might take time, but it still lands hard.
A 23-year-old man from Makatu village, Nzhelele, was sentenced to life imprisonment for the 2019 rape of a 13-year-old girl, the South African Police Service in Limpopo said on Friday.
Mukhethwa Masindi received the sentence in the Dzanani Regional Court after being found guilty earlier in the week.
Police said the teenager was walking past a soccer field with a friend on 23 November 2019 when Masindi had dragged her into nearby bushes, forcing the friend to flee. The girl later told her sister, who alerted the police in Siloam. Masindi was arrested the following day.
The case was later handed to the Thohoyandou Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit and assigned to Sgt Phumudzo Nemafhohoni. It was initially struck off the roll, pending DNA analysis, but was reinstated once positive results were received, leading to Masindi's re-arrest.
He was convicted on Monday, 17 November 2025, and sentenced to life. The court also ruled him unfit to possess a firearm.
Limpopo Provincial Commissioner Lt-Gen Thembi Hadebe praised the "thorough work" of the arresting officers and investigators.
Women's rights activists in the area also welcomed the ruling. Tshinyadzo Madou of the Thohoyandou Nzhelele Women Support Group said the sentence sent a powerful warning to perpetrators and gave strength to women fighting for justice.
Speaking in Tshivenda, she said: "I am standing for all women … we are seeing here that the police and justice system are acting strongly … and we believe this will teach others who remain that the law does not play."
Madou added that communities and survivors now had renewed hope that the authorities were taking those cases seriously.