Zimbabwean gets three life sentences for rape in SA

Thupeyo Muleya

Beitbridge Bureau

A 35-year-old Zimbabwean man was on Wednesday sentenced to three life sentences by the Modimolle Regional Court in South Africa’s Limpopo province for raping three minors.

Tinos Chimedze was convicted of the offences that he committed in May 2022.

His victims were aged between 10 and 11 and his sentences will run concurrently.

Limpopo police spokesperson Colonel Malasela Ledwaba confirmed the sentence on Friday.

“The court heard that on 31 May 2022, the accused, Tinos Chimedze (35), who is originally from Zimbabwe, raped the three victims aged between 10 and 11 years and thereafter sent them to a local victim-empowerment facility to request food, at Modimolle Extension 13 Jasper informal settlement,” he said.

“The founder of the victim-empowerment facility who was present got suspicious when the accused left the victims. She interviewed them and they opened up to her and informed her about the rape incidents.”

Col Ledwaba said Chimedze was positively linked to the three cases of rape and arrested.

The development comes a few weeks after another Zimbabwean man was jailed for three life sentences and an additional 226 years by the Pretoria High Court for crimes including murder, robbery, rape, illegal migration, kidnapping, housebreaking, escaping from custody and unlawful possession of ammunition.