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Johannesburg High Court Convicts Jack Mogale of 16 Murders and 19 Rapes on the West Rand and in Lenasia

Judge Frans Kgomo found Mogale guilty on 52 of 61 counts. Two days later he imposed 16 life terms, telling Mogale he was removing him permanently from society.

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Jack Mogale in a gray hooded top beside a mesh grille, looking at the camera

Police called him the West End serial killer before they knew his name. On March 16, 2011, a Johannesburg judge convicted Jack Mogale of 16 murders and 19 rapes.

Judge Frans Kgomo of the Johannesburg High Court found Mogale guilty on 52 of the 61 charges, which also included nine kidnappings, an attempted murder, three robberies with aggravating circumstances, a sexual assault and an escape from lawful custody. Mogale had pleaded not guilty to all of them and testified that police, witnesses and his common-law wife were conspiring against him, a claim Kgomo dismissed as "far-fetched" and "fallacious." Between March 2008 and March 2009 Mogale killed 15 women and a child, mainly at the West End brick and clay factory near his home in Waterworks, Westonaria, and at locations in Lenasia, south of Johannesburg. The two women who survived his attacks testified that he had presented himself as a Zion Christian Church preacher and a prophet. He was arrested in March 2009 after a teenager went missing and police were given his car registration number. The judgment drew to a large degree on the work of Gerard Labuschagne, head of the police's investigative psychology unit, whose analysis linked many unidentified victims to Mogale.

On March 18, Kgomo sentenced Mogale to 16 life terms and 23 years, with the sentences to run concurrently. "Sir, there is no way you can be allowed to be out of prison to come into contact with women. I am removing you permanently from society," the judge said.

The Mail & Guardian and the court's judgment gave Mogale's age as 42, while TimesLIVE and the Sowetan reported that he was 44.

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