Mmbengwa was born in 1966, one of seven children, and left school at standard five. He lived in the Thohoyandou area of what is now Limpopo province. South African reporting called him the Lover's Lane Killer.
Between 1996 and 1998 he shot seven people in the course of robberies. Among them were Azwitheli Lactor Mugwebu, an official of the agriculture department; Constance Khosa, thirty-four; and Thomas Gundula, thirty-six, a police inspector at Vhuwani. He took vehicles, money and firearms.
The seven named in the record are Azwitheli Lactor Mugwebu, an agriculture department official; Constance Khosa, thirty-four; Inspector Thomas Gundula, thirty-six; Sergeant Bernard Nevhuthalu, forty-six; Lawrence Muofhe, thirty-three; Doris Kenyaletso Ravutho; and Johannes Mukhawana.
He was arrested in January 1998 and on July 24, 2001 was convicted and sentenced to seven life sentences plus a further forty-five years on the robbery and firearms counts.
The accessible record is South African press coverage of the sentencing and the summary material that descends from it. There is no published judgment, and no account of the investigation is available. Whether the case is properly a serial one or a series of armed robberies in which the robber shot to kill is a question the sourcing does not settle, and this entry does not settle it either.