Khangayi Sedumedi was a 32-year-old security guard from Gugulethu, Cape Town, when he stood before the Western Cape High Court on June 9, 2016 and was sentenced to seven life terms plus 40 years' direct imprisonment. He had pleaded guilty, under a plea and sentence agreement, to 21 of the 23 counts against him. Four of those counts were murder and eight were rape. The offenses covered a little more than three years, from November 2011 until his arrest in January 2015, and were committed in and around Cape Town.
Judge President John Hlophe presided. In passing sentence he said it was the longest he had imposed in 22 years on the bench. The National Prosecuting Authority led the state's case.
The indictment listed 23 counts: eight of rape, four of murder, two of kidnapping, five of robbery with aggravating circumstances, one of attempted robbery with aggravating circumstances, one of attempted rape and one of assault. Sedumedi pleaded guilty to every count except attempted rape and one count of robbery with aggravating circumstances, and was convicted on 21 counts. The prosecution described the crimes as premeditated and well planned. Most of the complainants were young women chosen at random.
In the plea and sentence agreement Sedumedi admitted that he killed four of the women so that they could not identify him.
Three of the four dead are named: Anathi Mali, Nonthemba Ndondo, who was 20, and Sinazo Ntlaka. Ndondo's death was the subject of the first murder charge laid against him, in January 2015. Ntlaka was killed on January 6, 2015, the day before his arrest. The fourth killing took place in July 2014 in Goodwood; the victim's name is not on record.
Sedumedi was arrested on January 7, 2015. He first appeared at the Goodwood Magistrate's Court, facing charges of rape and robbery with aggravating circumstances in 2013 and 2014 incidents. A murder charge, concerning the 20-year-old woman, was added at about the end of January, and he abandoned an application for bail after what the prosecutor called further developments in the police investigation. The case was postponed to March 24, 2015.
In the following months the number of charges grew. Later charges added three counts of murder and two of rape to an existing list of three counts of rape, two of murder and two of robbery. By May 2015 the court had been told the matter would move to the Western Cape High Court, and on July 21, 2015 it was postponed for the sixth time while investigations continued.
Under the agreement the court imposed seven life sentences together with 40 years' direct imprisonment for the further counts. The sentences for the lesser counts were ordered to run concurrently. The court also ordered his name entered on the National Register for Sex Offenders. The prosecuting authority's spokesperson said the sentence might bring the families some closure.
The 2015 charges at one stage linked him to six deaths. The plea and the sentence covered four murders, and no conviction exists for any further death. No appeal against the plea or the sentence is on record.
November 2011: start of the offenses admitted in the plea.
July 2014: the fourth of the four murders, in Goodwood.
January 6, 2015: killing of Sinazo Ntlaka.
January 7, 2015: Sedumedi arrested.
January 2015: first appearances at Goodwood Magistrate's Court; murder charge added; bail application abandoned.
March 24, 2015: case postponed.
July 21, 2015: case postponed for the sixth time.
June 9, 2016: guilty plea to 21 counts and sentence of seven life terms plus 40 years, Western Cape High Court.
June 13, 2016: sentence announced in a prosecuting authority release.