Residents of a township where the Ekurhuleni’s serial rapist, Nkosinathi Emmanuel Phakathi, lived have described him as a friendly and jovial person who loved playing football and fixing cars.
The community members of extension three in Chris Hani, Daveyton, were all shocked when Phakathi was arrested, convicted and sentenced for the inhumane offences.
He was handed 42 life sentences for rape, and 791 years and six months of direct imprisonment for assault, sexual assault, kidnapping, robbery with aggravating circumstances and theft. The sentences will not be running concurrently.
Phakathi, 40, who was wearing a face mask in court, was seated in the accused dock and looking down, while acting Pretoria High Court judge Lesego Makolomakwe delivered the three-hour judgment. The matter sat at the Palm Ridge Magistrate’s Court on Friday.
He was arrested and linked to some of the offences through DNA evidence, and a modus operandi linkage report. A total of 96 dockets were probed by police investigating officer warrant officer Tlala John Mokoena.
Born in 1984 in Benoni, Phakathi grew up in Daveyton, east of Johannesburg, and was raised by a single mother with his eight siblings. Prior to his
arrest in 2021, Phakathi was fixing cars involved in accidents.
He has three children aged 14, five and two. Sifiso Mashego, 20, said he would often wash Phakathi’s car for R30.
“I know him as a great guy. I grew up under him. I saw him as an uncle of mine. I was in disbelief when he was arrested for these crimes,’’ said Mashego.
Sylvester Makana, 43, said Phakathi grew up playing soccer in the area. “He was never a naughty child. A few years back there were times when he would come back home late in the evening driving in his car. That is when I became suspicious that he might be up to something bad,’’ said Makana.
Phakathi was found guilty in November 2022 of 148 counts. He entered a guilty plea to every charge.
He was found guilty of 90 counts of rape, three counts of compelling a child to witness a sexual act, four counts of compelled rape, 43 counts of kidnapping, two counts of assault, two counts of sexual assault and four counts of theft.
Reacting to the sentencing, the victims of Phakathi’s reign of terror expressed their happiness on his life sentence.
“I cannot bring back what he took from me. There is a void inside of me. There is no joy because of what he did. I am shattered. But I am grateful for the life sentence, and I say thumbs up to the police for their hard work. This sentence is a lesson to all perpetrators that they cannot go around raping and playing around with people’s children,” said the rape victim.
Another rape victim said: “I am happy that he is going to be locked up in jail forever. He damaged my spirit.”
The mother of one of Phakathi’s rape victims said: “I am a mother of a daughter who was molested in front of her child. That was traumatic. My daughter still goes through that trauma.
“As a family we are happy about the life sentence. But I do not understand why the court allowed him to cover his face with a face mask during the trial. When he was raping, he was not hiding his face.”
According to the National Prosecuting Authority, Phakathi committed his crimes in and around Ekurhuleni, from June 2012 until March 2021 when he was arrested.
The majority of his victims were school-going children, the youngest being nine years old.
