Jack Mogale was convicted in the Johannesburg High Court on March 16, 2011, on 52 of the 61 counts against him, among them 16 counts of murder and 19 of rape. The crimes were committed in 2008 and 2009 around Westonaria, on Gauteng's West Rand, and in Lenasia, southwest of Johannesburg. According to the Sapa news agency, the dead were 15 women and a child. Two women who survived his attacks testified against him.
He had presented himself to many of the women as a preacher of the Zion Christian Church, a prophet or a traditional healer, and he offered some of them lifts in his car. Investigators described him as the worst serial offender they had come across, TimesLIVE reported. Judge Frans Kgomo sentenced him on March 18, 2011, to 16 life terms and further prison terms, all to run concurrently, and told him he was being removed from society permanently. Newspapers called him the West-End serial killer.
Little about his early years appeared in the coverage of his trial. His full name was given by TimesLIVE as Madumetsa Jack Mogale. His age was reported as 42 by Sapa and the Mail and Guardian at the time of the verdict, and as 44 by TimesLIVE and the Sowetan a few days later; his date of birth was not reported.
The Sowetan, which visited his neighborhood after the verdict, reported that he left school in Grade 10 and had two daughters, aged 11 and 8 in March 2011, who were living with his sister in Ennerdale, south of Johannesburg. His wife died in 2006, the paper reported. From 2005 he lived in the Waterworks informal settlement near Zuurbekom, west of Johannesburg. In 2006 he was arrested for selling stands in the settlement and was sentenced to 18 months, according to the same report.
During the killings he lived with a girlfriend, described in different reports as his common-law wife or live-in partner, and their four children, TimesLIVE reported. She told the court she had met him in April 2008. At sentencing, TimesLIVE reported, he had two previous convictions for rape. The state argued that he had committed crimes while young and that earlier sentences had not deterred him.
To his neighbors he was a religious man. Several told the Sowetan that he handed out what he called Zion Christian Church "holy tea," which he said would cleanse them and help them find partners. One neighbor said he had bought bread for her children when her household had nothing to eat. "He never seemed like a murderer or a rapist," she told the paper. "He has never hurt anyone from this area."
His girlfriend testified that he practiced traditional medicine and charged R150 a time, and a man who had been charged with him in a separate fraud case told the court he had seen Mogale wearing traditional beads. Mogale denied both accounts. He said he wore only the star badge of the Zion Christian Church.
The state's case, as reported during the trial, was that between 2008 and March 2009 Mogale met women in and around Westonaria, Venterspost and Lenasia, persuaded them to go with him, and attacked them outside the towns. The women were strangled or struck with a blunt object, TimesLIVE reported, and he robbed women he attacked.
The bodies were found around Westonaria and Lenasia. Some of the dead had not been identified by their families by the time of the trial, the Sowetan reported. One of the victims was a mother who was found with her young child; both had been killed. The prosecutor, Advocate Elaine Moonsamy, told the court at sentencing that his victims ranged from young to old and that he did not discriminate in choosing them.
One victim named in court reports was Emelina Mhangwani. According to a Sapa report of Mogale's own testimony, the state alleged that he met her on a train on March 17, 2008, as he traveled home from the Westonaria Magistrate's Court, where a case against him had been postponed that day, and that he robbed her of her cellphone and killed her. Questioned by his own counsel, Mogale said he remembered nothing of the kind. "I was very tired after attending court," he said. "I don't remember talking to anyone on my way home. I alighted at Waterworks station, from there I went home."
Another woman, from Zuurbekom, was brought to hospital in a critical condition on the night of January 29, 2009, after being attacked, and died about a month later, a doctor told the court. Further victims' names were not given in the reports of the trial.
The prosecution described a pattern. Mogale, it said, exploited the Zion Christian Church and traditional healing to win the trust of vulnerable women and then took them to what Moonsamy called his "den." The two survivors both said that when they first met him he called himself a preacher of the church and a prophet. A teenager who testified said he told her she had bad luck and would marry a rich man, and that she needed to drink a particular brand of tea to rid herself of the bad luck.
The case broke because of one passenger's unease. A woman from the Westonaria area testified that she had been shopping in Westonaria with her two small children when Mogale offered her a lift. A teenage neighbor was already in the back of the car. As he drove, he asked her personal questions and told her that someone would break up her marriage. He turned off onto a gravel road, she said, but turned back to the main road when he saw traffic officers ahead. He then drove her to her home, even though she had not told him where she lived.
When she got out, Mogale told the teenager to move to the front seat. The woman felt uneasy and wrote down the car's registration number as it drove away. The teenager did not reach her destination.
She was attacked outside Westonaria. She survived and later testified against him. The Sowetan dated the attack to March 13, 2009, and the Sowetan later reported that the neighbor who had shared the ride was the person who reported her missing.
Mogale was arrested on March 27, 2009, at his home, according to the Sowetan. Police had been given the registration number of the car after the teenager disappeared, and her cellphone was found in his home, the Sowetan reported. TimesLIVE reported that he was found with a cellphone belonging to one of his victims.
Captain Kgomotso Manthata, a police witness, told the court that the arrest ended Mogale's run of crimes. He said police found women's clothing and a cellphone belonging to one of the victims at the house, and that the woman living there told officers the clothing was not hers but that Mogale had brought it home along with the phone. His girlfriend testified that on March 13, 2009, he brought home earrings, clothing and a blue woman's top. "He said that he bought the items for me," she told the court. She said he also brought a cellphone that he claimed to have picked up outside a shop in Westonaria.
The car itself was part of the evidence. A white Volkswagen Golf was linked to the attacks, but its registration plates belonged to a black Volkswagen Polo, the court heard.
According to his girlfriend, on the night of the arrest Mogale told the police he had received the cellphone from a client. In his own evidence he said he had found it in a blue plastic bag at his mechanic's workshop in Westonaria.
The investigation was led by the police's serial offenses unit for the Lenasia and Westonaria areas. Its head, Brigadier Petros Erasmus van Staden Byleveld, presented to the court a statement that Mogale was said to have made in 2009. A Sapa report gives the officer's surname as Beyleveldt.
In the statement, as read in court, Mogale was recorded as telling the officer that he wanted to talk about other cases because what he had done was troubling him. "Director I will now begin to talk about the other cases because these things that I have done are bothering me," the statement read. Near its end he appealed for help: "Director I want you to help me because when I am with women I lose control and don't know what I am doing." TimesLIVE reported a similar statement at the time of his arrest, in which he said he lost control around women and killed those who did not give him what he wanted.
The statement covered seven of the crimes, the court heard. In it Mogale described meeting a woman at a supermarket in Lenasia who approached him, apparently because of the church badge he wore, and seeing her again the next day. He was also recorded as describing how he kidnapped a woman in a Mazda 323 and assaulted her when she tried to escape.
Mogale disowned the statement. He testified that no statement had been taken from him, that the police had made it up, and that he signed only its first page because the officer had said he would arrange for him not to be implicated. "I was frightened they might repeat the torture," he told the court. He claimed that officers had assaulted him with electric shocks and acid to make him sign, and that they had beaten him into pointing out places where rapes and murders happened; he said he pointed out random spots to make the assaults stop. Asked whether he should have sought medical attention, he said the acid injury had not been serious. He also claimed that the police were falsely portraying him as a traditional healer.
One of the counts concerned an escape. A Sapa report of the trial described it as an alleged escape attempt from the Brixton police station cells in Johannesburg, and another Sapa report said he had been returned to custody after the attempt. In a 2014 overview of the country's serial killers, TimesLIVE wrote that a few days after his arrest he escaped by posing as an inmate being taken to court, and that he was found in the court toilets and taken back into custody. Mogale denied in court that he had tried to escape. Judge Kgomo convicted him of escaping from custody and gave him three years for it.
Mogale went on trial before Judge Frans Kgomo in the Johannesburg High Court. When he pleaded in 2010 he faced 61 counts: 18 of kidnapping, 19 of rape and 16 of murder, together with three of robbery with aggravating circumstances, sexual assault, fraud or alternatively theft, attempted murder, and escaping from custody, TimesLIVE reported. He pleaded not guilty to all of them.
The prosecution was led by Advocate Elaine Moonsamy. He was defended by Advocate Buhle Madondo. The state selected 133 witnesses, a Sapa report said, and many of them testified. By February 2011 the trial was well under way, with his girlfriend in the witness box.
The witnesses included the two surviving women, the neighbor who had noted the registration number, doctors who had examined the survivors and other victims, police officers, Mogale's girlfriend and the man who had been his co-accused in the fraud case. The mother of one of the survivors testified that she had never spoken to Mogale, after he claimed to have telephoned her, and called him an "evil man," according to a court report.
Much of the case rested on scientific and documentary evidence. DNA belonging to Mogale was found on most of the women, the Sowetan reported. In cross-examination, the prosecutor put to him that his DNA had been found on victims in four instances; he did not answer, according to a court report. DNA evidence from one crime scene was also matched to him; he disputed it.
Survivors and witnesses identified him by a scar on his face, other facial marks and a bruise on his lower lip, TimesLIVE reported. The state also relied on cellphone records and identity parades. Moonsamy put to him that his SIM card had been used in 25 different handsets. "I don't agree," he replied. "I've only used four phones."
Other items came from his home. The state pointed to a pamphlet bearing his cellphone number and to papers listing recipes and ailments. Mogale said he had never seen them and that they could not have been in his house. He said a man connected to the fraud case had taken his generator and other belongings after his arrest, and that the same man had stolen doctors' letters from his car.
Because so many of the women had been found long after they died, the link between the cases mattered. The state called Professor Gerard Labuschagne, a police psychologist, whose analysis concluded that the crimes had been committed by the same offender, according to TimesLIVE and the Mail and Guardian. A state expert told the court that serial murderers continue to offend until they are caught, usually within a particular geographic area, and that their "comfort zone" lies close to where they live or work, TimesLIVE reported.
Mogale testified in his own defense. His answers were consistent on one point: the police and the state witnesses, he said, had conspired against him. He called many of the witnesses liars and said he did not know many of the women who had testified. "I know nothing about these matters," he said when Madondo asked him about the charges. He told the court that his girlfriend was lying.
He said that some of the women had been in relationships with him, and that one of the witnesses against him had invented the charges after he ended a relationship with her. He described himself as a faithful partner. Women, he told the court, should be well taken care of. He denied raping, killing or kidnapping anyone.
Judge Kgomo grew impatient with him during cross-examination. According to a Sapa report, the judge interrupted repeatedly and told him to answer "with a simple yes or no," and said: "The questions are not hard Mr Mogale... I should not have to interrupt."
Judge Kgomo began reading his judgment on March 16, 2011, and found Mogale guilty on 52 of the 61 counts. He rejected the claim that the police, the witnesses and his girlfriend had conspired against him, calling it "far-fetched," according to the Mail and Guardian, and found that Mogale's own testimony was contradictory, TimesLIVE reported.
The convictions, as listed by TimesLIVE, were 16 counts of murder, 19 of rape, nine of kidnapping, two of theft, and one count each of robbery with aggravating circumstances, serious assault, fraud, attempted murder, sexual assault and escaping from custody. The verdict relied heavily on the forensic evidence and on Labuschagne's profiling, TimesLIVE reported.
At the sentencing hearing Mogale chose not to testify, not to call witnesses and not to hand in a pre-sentence report. Moonsamy asked the court to remove him from society permanently and to ensure he was never released. She called his crimes "loathsome and despicable" and asked for a life sentence on each murder count, at least 20 years on each rape count and at least 15 years for the robbery. She argued that he had shown no remorse and had refused to take responsibility. One survivor, she told the court, had been left physically and psychologically scarred.
Madondo argued that his client was not a candidate for permanent removal from society. Murder was serious, he said, but the judge should not "over-emphasise" it, and Mogale's decision to maintain his innocence should not be held against him as a lack of remorse.
Kgomo sentenced him on March 18, 2011. He imposed life imprisonment on each of the 16 murder counts and four more life terms on rape counts involving repeated rape. On 15 other rape counts he gave 20 years each. The remaining terms were 15 years for the aggravated robbery, five years on each kidnapping count, three years on each theft count, two years for serious assault, three years for fraud, five years for attempted murder, three years for sexual assault and three years for the escape. All the sentences were to run concurrently.
The judge called Mogale an "evil and perverted murderer and rapist who posed extreme danger to women in society" and "a terror, a terrible terror who went around the streets searching for women to rape." He said Mogale could not safely live among women, that society was demanding protection from people like him, and that he was removing him permanently from society, TimesLIVE reported.
His relatives and neighbors in Waterworks were shocked by his conviction, the Sowetan reported. His sister, who asked not to be named, said he had been a good man who could not have kidnapped or killed anyone. "He is paying for someone else's crimes," she said, and she named another man as the person responsible. The family said they planned to appeal against both the conviction and the sentence. The outcome of any appeal was not reported.
Reports differ on how the sentence was summarized. The TimesLIVE report of the sentencing listed every term and said they would all run concurrently; it did not mention parole. The Sowetan reported that the 16 life terms would run concurrently and that an additional 23 years "without parole" would follow. In 2014 TimesLIVE wrote that he was serving 16 life sentences, concurrently, with no possibility of parole.
In May 2014 TimesLIVE listed him third among South Africa's 11 deadliest serial killers, describing him as linked to 16 murders over about two years in the west of Johannesburg.
Several points in the reporting conflict or rest on one account.
Age. Sapa and the Mail and Guardian gave his age as 42 in March 2011; TimesLIVE and the Sowetan gave 44 in the same week.
Arrest date. The Sowetan gave March 27, 2009, and placed the arrest at his home. One TimesLIVE report of March 17, 2011, said he was arrested in 2010 after a killing in Westonaria; the other reports of the case place it in March 2009.
The survivor's attack. A Sapa report dated the attack on the teenage survivor to March 13, 2008; the Sowetan dated it to March 13, 2009. His girlfriend gave March 13, 2009, as the day he brought home a woman's belongings.
The escape. Sapa described an alleged attempt from police station cells; TimesLIVE later described an escape at court, ended when he was found in the court toilets. He was convicted of escaping from custody.
The statement. The confession presented by Brigadier Byleveld was recorded in 2009. Mogale said it was fabricated and extracted by assault. The judge did not accept his account of a conspiracy; the reports do not say how the court dealt with the assault claims.
Parole. Whether the court made any order about parole is unclear from the reports.
Counts not proven. He was acquitted on nine of the 61 counts; the reports do not list which ones.
2005: Begins living in the Waterworks informal settlement near Zuurbekom, west of Johannesburg (Sowetan).
2006: Arrested for selling stands in Waterworks and sentenced to 18 months (Sowetan).
2008: Killings and attacks begin around Westonaria and Lenasia, according to the state.
March 17, 2008: Date on which the state alleged he met Emelina Mhangwani on a train after a court appearance in Westonaria.
April 2008: Meets the woman who became his live-in partner, by her evidence.
January 29, 2009: A woman from Zuurbekom is brought to hospital in a critical condition after an attack; she died about a month later.
March 13, 2009: A woman given a lift writes down his registration number; a teenager in the same car is attacked and survives (Sowetan date).
March 27, 2009: Arrested at his home in Waterworks.
2009: Statement presented by Brigadier Byleveld recorded; escape or escape attempt from custody.
2010: Pleads not guilty to 61 counts in the Johannesburg High Court.
February 2011: Trial under way before Judge Frans Kgomo; his girlfriend testifies (Sowetan, February 11, 2011). Mogale later testifies and denies the charges.
March 16, 2011: Convicted on 52 of 61 counts, including 16 murders and 19 rapes.
March 18, 2011: Sentenced to 16 life terms for murder, four further life terms and other terms, all concurrent.
March 22, 2011: His family tells the Sowetan they plan to appeal.
May 29, 2014: TimesLIVE reports him serving 16 concurrent life sentences.