Serial rapist handed 35-year sentence after DNA breakthrough links him to decade-old attacks
A serial rapist has been sentenced to 35 years’ direct imprisonment by the Vryheid Regional Court for a string of violent attacks committed in the Ngome forest area near Vryheid between 2010 and 2012.
Thabani Innocent Zulu, 46, pleaded guilty to three counts of rape, common robbery and robbery with aggravating circumstances, after targeting three women who were not known to him. According to police, he ambushed them near or within the forest before assaulting them and stealing their belongings.
National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson Natasha Ramkisson-Kara said Zulu’s attacks included the use of a firearm during at least one robbery, with victims also robbed of items such as cellphones, money and a handbag before he fled the scenes.
“Zulu pleaded guilty, in terms of Section 112 of the Criminal Procedure Act.”
She further explained how forensic evidence ultimately secured the conviction years later, after Zulu had initially evaded justice.
“A subsequent DNA-led investigation identified him as a suspect in the Ngome cases,” she said.
Zulu was only linked to the crimes after he was convicted in 2021 for unrelated robberies in the Bulwer area, which led investigators to obtain a DNA match connecting him to the earlier rapes and robberies.
He was also declared unfit to possess a firearm and his name was entered into the National Register for Sex Offenders.
Ramkisson-Kara added that the case forms part of a wider strategy targeting repeat sexual offenders, underscoring that the prosecution team remains focused on securing convictions in serial rape cases across the country.
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