By Luvuyo Mjekula
Rapist Simamkele Zuzani was sentenced to life imprisonment in the Makhanda High Court on Monday, much to the relief and approval of the complainant, her family and gender activists.
Judge Motilal Rugunanan sentenced Zuzani to 15 years for the first count of rape, life for the second and life for attempted murder.
However, he ordered the sentences to run concurrently, effectively sentencing Zuzani to one life term in jail.
“[Zuzani] subjected the complainant to a brutal, degrading and humiliating invasion of her privacy,” Rugunanan said, adding that her inner peace and tranquillity had been replaced by fear.
Referring to a Victim Impact Statement presented to the court by state advocate Sharon Hendricks, the judge said the ordeal changed the complainant’s life.
She is no longer comfortable being intimate with her boyfriend; she has bad memories of the incident and sometimes has bad dreams, the report stated. She no longer goes out at night and does not feel comfortable around men, including her mother’s boyfriend. She is due to receive counselling.
Meanwhile, Zuzani, now 22, smiled as a police officer led him into the cells after sentencing, and remarked: “I’m just going to fly through this sentence.”
The Extension 10 man was convicted on Friday for the rape and attempted murder of the now 21-year-old complainant, after he followed her as she walked home from an Extension 9 tavern on 2 December 2024. He raped her twice and stabbed her multiple times. She was found by a Hi-Tec Security armed response officer, Thozamile Ntamo, lying in a pool of blood in Vergenoeg.
Zuzani claimed the complainant was his girlfriend and they had consensual sex. He said the complainant and her mother colluded to falsely accuse him.
However, Rugunanan rejected Zuzani’s version. The judge said he did not dispute that forensic evidence (his DNA) implicated him, and that the complainant was able to identify him even although she had been intoxicated. He had stabbed her to silence her after she had expressed an intention to testify against him in court.
In sentencing Zuzani, the judge found no compelling and substantial circumstances to deviate from the prescribed minimum sentences. Zuzani has two previous convictions of robbery, for which he was sentenced to a wholly suspended four-year sentence in 2018, and housebreaking in 2022, for which he served 18 months in a correctional facility. Although these were not related to the current case
Rugunanan said he took note of the defence’s submissions that Zuzani had no history of sexual offenses, was a productive member of society in that he took care of his three-year-old child and the victim did not succumb to her injuries. The judge said the fact that the complainant survived the attack was not a mitigating factor. “She survived the ordeal but the quality of her life diminished and it is unknown if it would ever be restored again.”
Rugunanan said even though she was a single witness, the complainant was credible and reliable. Other state witnesses, including her mother, could not be faulted either.
He said Zuzani showed no remorse despite his opportunity to come clean.
The judge mentioned widespread crimes of violence against women, children and the elderly, stating that the court has a duty to send a strong message to perpetrators. “This country has five times the average violence against women and children,” he stated, adding that the moral fabric of society had been lost.
Both the complainant and her mother welcomed the sentence.
The leader of a local anti-gender-based violence organisation lauded the judge for paying attention to the scourge of women and children abuse.
“I am relieved,” the complainant said.
