Lazarus Tshidiso Mazingane operated around Nasrec, in the south of Johannesburg, in the years immediately after South Africa's transition. He is known in South Africa as the Nasrec serial killer, after the district. He was born in 1976, which made him nineteen when the killings began.
Between 1995 and 1998 he approached women in the area, in several cases with an offer of work, took them into the open veld, raped them and strangled or shot them. Sixteen died, and at least four other women were raped and survived to give evidence. Several of the victims were never identified.
The victims named in the record are Margaret Mollo Dineo, Lindileni Paulina Mahlangu, Kedibone Catherine Maepe, Prudence Miller, Gladys Mabaso, Queen Mnguni, Glen-Rose Vilakazi, Minah Msimanga, Prudence Mohomane and Maria Tshabalala. At least one woman was never identified.
The case ran alongside the Sithole and Wemmer Pan investigations in the same city in the same years, and it was one of the cases that led the South African Police Service to establish a dedicated psychological investigation capacity.
He was arrested and tried in Johannesburg, and on December 2, 2002 was sentenced to seventeen life sentences plus 700 years. He maintained his innocence throughout.