Sifiso Mkhwanazi Sentenced to Six Life Terms for Murders of Six Johannesburg Women
A Gauteng High Court judge in Palm Ridge jailed Mkhwanazi for life for raping and killing six women whose bodies were hidden at his father's workshop in 2022.
Published
Between April and October 2022, six women were raped and killed and their bodies hidden around the yard of a panel-beating workshop in Johannesburg that belonged to Sifiso Mkhwanazi's father. On Wednesday, September 18, 2024, the Gauteng High Court, sitting in Palm Ridge, sentenced Mkhwanazi to six terms of life imprisonment, one for each of them.
Judge Cassim Moosa added prison terms on the other counts: 90 years for six counts of rape, 10 years for defeating the ends of justice, five years for theft, 10 years for possessing an unlicensed firearm and five years for possessing ammunition. All of the sentences are to run concurrently. The judge ordered that Mkhwanazi be brought back before the court after 30 years so that his sentence can be reconsidered, and he told the victims' families that their voices would be heard if a parole process were ever begun.
The state had proved at trial that Mkhwanazi picked the women up in the Johannesburg city center, where they worked as sex workers. He pleaded not guilty to every charge, but under South Africa's Criminal Procedure Act he made formal admissions: that he killed the women with an arm choke and that he obstructed justice by hiding their bodies in different places on his father's premises. He was convicted in March 2024.
Moosa called him "arrogant" and found no sign that he understood what he had done. "The accused acknowledged that he committed the crimes. However, despite this, he does not seem to have insight into his criminality or the impact the crimes had on the victims," the judge said. Psychiatrists at Sterkfontein Psychiatric Hospital had reported the month before that there was a great risk he would commit similar crimes if given the chance, and the court rejected his last attempt to argue for a lighter sentence. "The accused has proved that he has a very poor prognosis for rehabilitation and will most likely remain a threat to society as long as he is alive," Moosa said.
Relatives of the women and members of women's groups screamed and sobbed as the sentence was read. "I am what I am because of my mother," said the daughter of one of the victims. "I find it hard to forgive him for that." Gauteng police credited Capt. Vincent Saunders and Sgt. Prince Mbonambi of the Provincial Serious Violence Crime Unit with the investigation that led to his arrest and conviction.
Published reports give Mkhwanazi's age at sentencing as 21 or 22, and the total length of his additional prison terms differently; the individual terms above are those reported from the police statement. Accounts also differ on which Johannesburg neighborhood the workshop stood in.
Sources
- Evil Joburg serial killer and rapist served six life terms in jail, IOL (Thobeka Mthembu)
- Life in prison for sex worker killer, The Star (Siyabonga Sithole)