A man who was found guilty of 14 charges of rape and 11 of robbery with aggravating circumstances, collapsed and died during court recess in the Ga-Rankuwa Regional Court on Thursday.
Johannes Jojo Shabangu, aged 35, reportedly fell ill and collapsed in the holding cells.
"This was subsequent to Judge Andre Peterson receiving his guilty plea statement and subsequently finding him guilty of all charges, in accordance with the guilty plea," said National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson, Henry Mamothame.
The case was set for victim impact statements to be read in court before sentencing could be imposed, but it was rolled over for him to receive medical attention, however, emergency teams who attended to the accused, declared him dead and a declaration certificate was handed to the judge.
The NPA said Peterson declared proceedings as finalised and he ordered for the death certificate to be filed with the registrar of the High Court of South; North West Division. He further ordered for an inquest docket to be registered, to determine the cause of death.
Between July 2012 and December 2019, Shabangu and his accomplices raped and robbed multiple women in the Odi district.
"The evidence contained in the indictment indicates that in some instances, Shabangu together with his accomplices, would confront couples coming from places of leisure in the evenings, threaten them with a firearm, beat up the boyfriends, rob them of their belongings and subsequently take turns to rape the female victims," Mamothame said.
Shabangu would also break into homes and accost a group of women and then rape one of the women. The youngest victim was 14.
"In his guilty plea statement, which was read by his attorney, he took responsibility for all the charges he was facing and asked for forgiveness to his victims," Mamothame said.
IOL