Times Of Swaziland: STREET PASTOR ARRESTED FOR RAPE, MURDER

STREET PASTOR ARRESTED FOR RAPE, MURDER
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Stanley Khumalo on 11/03/2025 08:32:00


MBABANE – A man suspected to be a serial rapist responsible for a string of
sexual assaults and murder in Mbabane and other parts of the country has been
arrested.
The alleged serial rapist, who is a street pastor, was nabbed at the Mbabane
city centre on Saturday evening. His arrest was said to have been effected at or
about 5:30pm.
Upon arrest, the police are said, for now, to have linked him to about five rape
cases and one murder which, however, are anticipated to escalate as police
intensify investigations.
His arrest happened two days after this publication reported that there seems to
be rapists on the loose, reportedly sexually violating women in broad daylight.
Last Thursday, when the article was published, 26 women had been raped in
several areas of the country, with three having occurred in broad daylight on
the outskirts of the capital city – Mbabane.
Among the rape cases in Mbabane reported by this publication was on Tuesday,
where an 18-year-old woman was gang-raped twice by two unknown men in a forest
at Mpolonjeni, Mbabane, at around 11am.
This was after a 36-year-old woman was sexually assaulted in a shocking act of
violence while making her way to work. The ordeal befell last Monday at around
8am. According to sources, the rape survivor from Mvakwelitje, Mbabane, was
waylaid by an unknown attacker in a forest near Checkers, where she was
subjected to rape and brutally stabbed on her left knee and both hands.
Schoolmate
Another deeply distressing case involved an eight-year-old pupil who was raped
by a fellow schoolmate in a school toilet on February 27.
Sources revealed that the incident has left the child traumatised and has
sparked widespread calls for improved security in schools.
These incidents are just the tip of the iceberg. A series of other assaults
reported in the same week has brought the total number of rape cases to five,
highlighting a disturbing trend.
At Nkoyoyo, Mbabane, a woman was attacked near a roadside, while at Nsangwini,
Pigg’s Peak, another woman was assaulted in her own home.
At Lusushwana, Matsapha, a woman was raped in a bush, and in Mankayane, a
19-year-old was forced into sexual intercourse inside a car.
Meanwhile, the arrest of the street pastor happened at a time when police
reported that rape cases increased by 8.63 per cent, as they hiked from 823 to
894 cases. This is a 71 jump in the rape cases. Conversely, the breakthrough on
his arrest, by the police, was subsequent to the street pastor allegedly having
on the wee hours of Saturday stabbing and killing a 29-year-old man of
Mangwaneni, who was accompanying a woman he intended to rob and rape. According
to sources, the suspected serial rapist just after midnight on Friday, was said
to have disguised his face by wearing a balaclava and waylaid a female security
guard and a 29-year-old male, inside the Mangwaneni Cemetery. The suspect, who
is said to descend from Makhewu, Siteki, in the Lubombo Region, reportedly used
the shade of the wall fence perimeter around the Eswatini Electricity Company
(EEC) houses, which are adjacent to the Mangwaneni graveyard, to limit his
visibility. It is said that as the pair of Sanele Mhlanga, 29 and the female
security guard, which the former was accompanying to her rented flat located in
close proximity of the cemetery, the suspect pounced on them at the intersection
of the pathway along the EEC wall fence and the dirt road within the cemetery.
Upon making contact with them, the suspect is said to have pulled the deceased
with his T-shirt and pulled him close as he asked them what they were doing at
the cemetery. “As the woman asked if Sanele (Mhlanga) knew the man stopping
them, he did not get to answer this question as within seconds, he unleashed one
powerful blow, stabbing Sanele in the chest,” said a community police who was
part of the people who attended to the incident. At this instance, Mhlanga
reportedly coughed before collapsing two metres away from the intersection. As
this was happening, the female security guard is said to have fled the scene to
his rented flat, which is about 100 metres from where the suspect waylaid them.
The street pastor is said to have pursued the woman to her rented flat, where
after gaining entry she had locked and started wailing for help.
Claimed
According to sources, she used the loudspeaker feature on her mobile phone as
she contacted a community police member.  As she placed the call, the sources
claimed that the suspect was forcefully trying to gain entry into her house by
banging the burglar door.
However, as the woman established communication with one of the Mangwaneni
Community Police, who responded by stating that he was reporting to the others
and they would make their way to her immediately, the suspect fled.
Upon arrival of the community police at the residence of the female security
guard, they were said to have received the narration of the woman and proceeded
to investigate the scene where she had been waylaid with Mhlanga. At the scene,
the community police were said to have started dialling Mhlanga’s mobile
number and it rang unanswered, next to graves two metres away from where he was
stabbed. The community police are said to have retrieved the mobile phone and
assumed that Mhlanga might have fled to a place of safety; probably his parental
home located about two kilometres from the cemetery.