Moyahabo Mabeba
As he condemend Aubrey Manaka to two life sentences for the rape and murder of Precious Ramabulana on Friday, Judge Francis Kganyago was moved to say:
“You are an evil and barbaric person.”
Manaka was also sentenced to eight years for housebreaking with intention to rape, as well as 15 years for robbery with aggravating circumstances.
His rape, housebreaking and robbery sentences will run concurrently.
The sentence marks the end of a highly charged trial, which on Thursday brought hardened state prosecutor Trott Mphahlele to tears.
Passing sentence in the Limpopo High Court sitting in Polokwane, Judge Kganyago said Manaka was a cruel and evil man who deserves a harsher punishment.
Kganyago also told Aubrey that: “Your actions have hurt many people and for that reason, your sentence should be a deterrent. I wonder what kind of person you are, who could rape a woman while she is bleeding and later murder her in order to silence her permanently to cover up your heinous crime.”
Kganyago went on to say that “in raping a defenseless woman, you committed a cruel act and degraded her human dignity. The manner in which you committed these crimes shows that you have no respect for women. You robbed the victim of her constitutional right to life and permanently shattered her dreams of becoming a breadwinner in her family.”
Precious’s aunt, Mavis Selothimela, spoke of the damage her murder has caused to the family.
“What this man has done is very cruel. This has brought severe pain in the family. We are unable to cope with the loss of Precious since that day Manaka took her away from us. As I am speaking, Precious’s mother is in the hospital because of depression. How can we forgive a person who has brought such misery into our family? We welcome the sentence, although this will not immediately bring closure to us.”
The provincial spokesperson for the National Prosecuting Authority, Mashudu Malabi-Dzangi, said: “We had a watertight case against Aubrey and there was no way he would have escaped the arm of the law.”
