Between 1995 and 1998 women were killed in and around Nasrec, in Johannesburg, and in parts of Soweto. The press came to call the man behind the killings the "Nasrec serial killer," because so many of the crimes happened in that area, IOL reported. In November 2002 Judge Joop Labuschagne of the Johannesburg High Court convicted Lazarus Tshidiso Mazingane, a 28-year-old taxi driver from Diepkloof in Soweto, on 74 of the 75 counts against him, among them 16 counts of murder. The following week he sentenced him to 17 life terms and 781 years, to run concurrently.
Most of the dead were young women. Two were men, shot on highways near Johannesburg in 1997. The judge pointed to the features the women's deaths shared, among them that the victims were young women who had been robbed. The police case had been built by Superintendent Piet Byleveld of the Serious and Violent Crimes Unit, who saw the pattern linking the Nasrec deaths and then found that the man he was looking for was already in prison for another crime. DNA evidence tied him to the cases.
Mazingane was born in prison while his mother was serving a five-year sentence, IOL reported at the time of his sentencing. His exact date of birth has not been reported; he was described as 27 when the trial began in 2002 and 28 at the verdict.
He was raised by his grandmother in Diepkloof. At his trial his advocate, Evelyn Magoloane, argued that he had grown up without proper parental supervision, and that this had contributed to what she called a "personality defect." In passing sentence the judge accepted that Mazingane had grown up in poverty, raised by his grandmother, and said his personal circumstances had been taken into account.
By the time of his arrest he was working as a taxi driver. Under cross-examination in 2002 he admitted that he had punched and kicked his former wife until she lost consciousness in Orange Farm. Asked by the prosecutor why he had beaten her so badly, he answered: "I was too hurt."
The case against him was drawn up by Advocate Nicolette Bell. The indictment ran to 83 pages and set out 75 counts, among them 17 of murder and three of kidnapping, with robbery, attempted murder, assault and firearm offenses. More than 300 people were listed as witnesses, and more than a year was set aside for the trial, IOL reported in the weeks before it began. A report during the trial gave the total as 73 charges.
The prosecution alleged that the crimes began in April 1993 and went on until the middle of 1998, and that many of the murders were committed with an accomplice, a man who had grown up with Mazingane and was himself in prison. The charges against that man were provisionally withdrawn. "We decided to separate the cases because they didn't work together on all the murders," Bell said. She told IOL that the accomplice was unlikely to testify against Mazingane.
The indictment listed the 17 murder counts in order, with the date and the area where each victim was found.
The first count concerned the death of Busisiwe Rosetta Tshabalala in April 1993. The prosecution alleged that Mazingane and his then employer, Tshabalala's husband, had killed her in Sebokeng. The judge acquitted Mazingane on this count, finding that the evidence did not prove his guilt beyond reasonable doubt.
On March 6, 1995, Margaret Mollo Dineo disappeared. The indictment charged Mazingane, together with his accomplice, with robbing and murdering her. She had been strangled, and her body was found near Nasrec on June 6, 1995. The day after she disappeared, on March 7, 1995, another woman was killed and left near Nasrec. She too had been strangled. She was not identified.
The count list shows that most of the deaths came in the first half of 1996.
Lindileni Paulina Mahlangu was killed in late March 1996, between March 24 and March 31, and was found in Ormonde. She was robbed. Her younger sister was in court for the sentence in 2002 and spoke to IOL afterward.
Kedibone Catherine Maepe was strangled on May 1, 1996. She was found in Roodepoort.
Prudence Miller was a schoolgirl. She was killed near Nasrec in May 1996; the indictment gave the date as May 4, while the summary of the charges gave May 6.
Gladys Mabaso was a married woman. The indictment gave two dates for her count, May 1 and August 10, 1996, and recorded that she was robbed and strangled and found in Naturena. Her husband told IOL in 2002 that she had been killed in May 1996.
Queen Mnguni was robbed and killed on May 2, 1996, and found in Soweto.
Glen-Rose Vilakazi was assaulted, robbed and strangled on May 6, 1996. She was found near Nasrec.
Minah Msimanga was strangled on May 17, 1996, and was found in Ophirton.
Prudence Mohomane was robbed and strangled on June 6, 1996, and was found in Nasrec. Her family waited eight years for the case to end. After the sentence her sister said life imprisonment was the right outcome now that the death penalty had been abolished.
Maria Tshabalala was robbed and strangled in July 1996, between July 5 and July 15.
Utlwang Dorah Koma was strangled on November 26, 1996, and was found near Crown Mines.
By 1997, the prosecution said, Mazingane had begun carrying a gun and hijacking motorists on the highways around Nasrec.
On July 24, 1997, Gert Aspeling, 66, was shot dead on a highway south of Johannesburg in a robbery of the couple's car, according to the indictment. His wife, 62, was taken with the car and survived. Gert Aspeling's death was the fourteenth murder count in the indictment.
On October 23, 1997, Joaquim Manuel Ferreira stopped his bakkie on a highway near Nasrec and was shot. He died in hospital four days later.
Palesa Molapisi was robbed and strangled on February 27, 1998, and was found in Meadowlands, Soweto.
Susan Mlaba was attacked and killed on April 23, 1998. She was found in Orlando, Soweto. Hers was the last murder count in the indictment.
Superintendent Piet Byleveld of the Serious and Violent Crimes Unit identified the pattern that linked what became known as the Nasrec murders. By the time his investigation pointed to a suspect, Mazingane was already serving a prison sentence for another crime. Forensic matches through DNA, IOL reported, ended the long search for the killers.
His arrest was reported at his trial as taking place in June 1998. When he was first questioned about the Nasrec deaths, and when he was formally charged with them, has not been reported.
Byleveld spent close to 38 years in the police and retired in June 2010 as a brigadier. When he died in May 2017, aged 67, IOL listed the Nasrec case among the serial-murder cases associated with him, alongside those of Moses Sithole and Cedric Maake.
The trial in the Johannesburg High Court was described by IOL as one of the largest murder trials in South Africa. Most of the witnesses were called by the state. Several women broke down in tears in the witness box as they identified Mazingane as the man who had attacked them, and some said he had taken their belongings. Expert witnesses gave DNA evidence linking him to some of the murders.
Mazingane gave evidence in his own defense and said the witnesses against him were lying. Senior state prosecutor Gerrie Roberts took him through the case in cross-examination. He denied giving a former girlfriend two gold rings that turned out to have belonged to one of the women the state said he had killed. He denied that he had ever owned a gun, although at least six witnesses, his former wife among them, testified that he had. The prosecution alleged that a gun had been used in some of the crimes. Asked why so many people would lie about him, he said: "I'm amazed as to why they are all lying."
He also claimed that the investigating officer had planted the forensic evidence that linked him to the victims. The judge would later reject this as a "ridiculous explanation."
Judge Labuschagne delivered his verdict in November 2002. "The state has succeeded in proving the accused guilty beyond reasonable doubt," he said of 74 of the 75 counts. Mazingane was convicted of 16 murders, 20 counts of robbery, five of attempted murder, three of kidnapping and one of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm, with firearm and ammunition counts and other charges. The judge found that DNA evidence linked him to nine of the cases.
The judge set out the features that the deaths of the women had in common. The victims were young women, they had been robbed, they had been strangled, and they had been killed in the same part of Johannesburg.
He acquitted Mazingane on the first count, the 1993 death of Busisiwe Rosetta Tshabalala.
Mazingane showed no visible emotion as the verdict was read, IOL's reporter wrote. He kept his eyes on his Setswana interpreter and did not look toward the victims' families or his own counsel. Only once did he glance at Superintendent Byleveld. When the court adjourned he walked down to the cells without lifting his head.
Roberts asked the court to impose a life sentence for each murder and long prison terms for the other crimes. Mazingane, he told the court, had shown no remorse.
The victims' families filled Court 4B for the sentence the following week, and murmured their agreement as the judge spoke. Labuschagne imposed life imprisonment for each of the 16 murders and on one further count, 18 years on each of 21 other counts, 25 years for robbery with aggravating circumstances, 15 years for each of the 19 other robberies, 10 years for each of the five attempted murders, eight years for each of the three kidnappings, two years for the assault, three years on each of three counts of illegal possession of a firearm and two years on each of four counts of illegal possession of ammunition. In all, IOL reported, the sentences came to 17 life terms and 781 years, and the judge ordered them to run concurrently.
The judge said Mazingane had stalked poor and defenseless women, and that he had no respect for the sanctity of life. His prospects of rehabilitation, he said, were poor if not nonexistent, and he had to be removed from society permanently. Because the death penalty had been abolished, he said, life imprisonment was the appropriate sentence.
Outside the court, the husband of Gladys Mabaso said Mazingane should be kept in solitary confinement for at least six years, and that the government should reconsider the death penalty. The younger sister of Paulina Mahlangu said she felt relieved, but would have felt more relieved by a death sentence. The family of Prudence Mohomane, who had waited eight years, said life imprisonment was the right sentence in the absence of the death penalty.
Under the rules of the Department of Correctional Services, a prisoner sentenced to life imprisonment between August 1, 1993, and September 30, 2004, must be considered for parole after serving a minimum of 12 years and four months, a department spokesperson, Singabakho Nxumalo, told the Mail & Guardian in 2023. A prisoner's case passes through a case management committee and a parole board before it reaches the National Council for Correctional Services, and the justice minister makes the final decision.
In March 2023 the Mail & Guardian reported that Mazingane was one of four men convicted of serial murders whose parole was before the national council, together with Christopher Zikode, Stewart Wilken and Cedric Maake. His parole applications had by then been rejected twice. The forensic psychologist Gérard Labuschagne told the paper that reaching the point of eligibility for parole did not guarantee release, and criticized parole boards for a lack of expertise in assessing the risk of violence.
The number of charges was reported in different ways. The indictment described before the trial had 75 counts; a report during the trial gave 73. The verdict dealt with 75 counts, and he was convicted on 74.
Accounts also differ on the firearm counts, given as two counts of illegal possession of a firearm and three of illegal possession of ammunition at the verdict, and as three firearm counts and four ammunition counts at the sentence.
The prosecutor's first name appears as Gerrie in one report and Gerrit in another.
The prosecution's case that an accomplice took part in many of the murders is not on record as having been tested in court. The charges against the man were provisionally withdrawn, and whether he was later prosecuted has not been reported.
Mazingane denied all the charges and claimed that the evidence against him had been planted. The court rejected that claim.
April 1993: death of Busisiwe Rosetta Tshabalala in Sebokeng; Mazingane was later charged with her murder and acquitted.
March 6, 1995: Margaret Mollo Dineo disappears; she is found near Nasrec on June 6, 1995.
March 7, 1995: an unidentified woman is killed near Nasrec.
March 24 to 31, 1996: Lindileni Paulina Mahlangu is killed.
May 1996: Kedibone Catherine Maepe, Queen Mnguni, Prudence Miller, Glen-Rose Vilakazi and Minah Msimanga are killed; Gladys Mabaso's count is dated May 1 and August 10, 1996.
June 6, 1996: Prudence Mohomane is killed.
July 5 to 15, 1996: Maria Tshabalala is killed.
November 26, 1996: Utlwang Dorah Koma is killed.
July 24, 1997: Gert Aspeling, 66, is shot dead on a highway; his wife survives.
October 23, 1997: Joaquim Manuel Ferreira is shot on a highway near Nasrec and dies four days later.
February 27, 1998: Palesa Molapisi is killed.
April 23, 1998: Susan Mlaba is killed; the last murder count.
June 1998: Mazingane's arrest, as reported at his trial.
2002: trial opens in the Johannesburg High Court on a 75-count, 83-page indictment.
2002: Mazingane gives evidence and denies the charges.
November 2002: convicted on 74 of 75 counts, among them 16 murders; acquitted on the first count.
2002, the following week: sentenced to 17 life terms and 781 years, to run concurrently.
June 2010: Piet Byleveld retires from the police.
May 2017: Byleveld dies, aged 67.
March 2023: the Mail & Guardian reports that Mazingane's parole has been refused twice and that his case is before the National Council for Correctional Services.