Rhodes Park accused confession confirms rape

6 December 2016

Johannesburg – One of Rhodes Park rape and murder accused confessed to raping one of the two women in Kensington, the High Court sitting in Palm Ridge heard on Tuesday.

“I started raping one of the women and during this action there was no screaming,” Mduduzi Mathibela Lawrence, 32, said in his confession.

Lieutenant Colonel Msatshwa Molefe read it to the court.

On Saturday, October 17, 2015, Lawrence, aka Mdu, was drinking beer and brandy in Yeoville with people identified as Stanley, Rasta, Bara, Small, Jeje, and Zulu boy.

These were their street names. Police later identified Jeje as Admore Ndlovu, 23 and Rasta as Thabo Nkala, 25.

Lawrence, Nkala, and Ndlovu are on trial on charges of robbery with aggravating circumstances, rape, and murder. They have pleaded not guilty. They were allegedly part of a 12-man gang that attacked two couples walking in the park, in Kensington, on the evening of Saturday, October 17, 2015.

They allegedly forced the women’s husbands, Zukisa Khela and Sizwe Tyeke, to strip before forcing them into the lake, where they drowned.

They went to Rhodes Park around 17:00 that day.

“This is the behaviour we always do once it gets afternoon. We will move to the Kensington Park where we do robberies,” Lawrence said in his confession.

Toy gun

Around 19:00 they approached two couples in the park. Lawrence and Small each had a toy gun. Zulu boy, Stanley, and Bara all had knives.

They ordered the couples to lie down. They took a ring, a watch, and cellphone from them.

Lawrence said Bara removed the men’s pants and shoes. Stanley tore off the women’s underwear. A man called Cosmos helped him.

He said he had pushed one of the women to the ground to rape her. He said she did not fight back or scream. He did not use a condom.

“When I was penetrating her, she closed her eyes by placing her hands over her face. She never screamed and cried during this rape.”

Cosmos raped the other woman. He said he heard the other group of men forcing the two men into the water and ordering them to swim. Lawrence said he did not pay attention to this, because he was raping the woman.

Lawrence and Cosmos left the women and returned to Yeoville where they sold the ring for R120 and the cellphone for R200.

Lawrence fled after seeing reports about the crime on the news on Sunday, October 18, 2015. He was arrested in Pretoria on December 18.

This article first appeared on News24, see here.