The High Court in Pretoria yesterday sentenced gunpoint rapist Morris Shungu to four life terms and over 115 years imprisonment.
The victims of a Zimbabwean man who kidnapped and repeatedly raped them at gunpoint spontaneously applauded in the High Court in Pretoria yesterday after he was sentenced to four life terms and over 115 years imprisonment.
“They should just shoot him,” one angry woman said loudly before Morris Shungu was led down to the cells.
Other victims described Shungu as a cold-hearted monster and said they would never forgive him for what he did to them. They believed there were more victims who had not come forward because of the stigma attached to rape.
Shungu, 31, who pleaded guilty to 16 charges ranging from rape and kidnapping to robbery and being an illegal immigrant, stood with a bowed head while Judge David Makhoba sentenced him to the maximum term for his heinous deeds.
Shungu admitted that between September 2015, and February 2016, he had kidnapped and raped five women after accosting them on Pretoria streets early in the morning and forcing them to accompany him to deserted places.
Brandishing a firearm, he held his victims captive for hours, assaulted them, threatened to kill them and raped some up to nine times. His victims included a nurse, a security guard, a domestic worker and a veterinary student.
Judge Makhoba said it was aggravating that Shungu forced the women to repeatedly have intercourse with a stranger while threatening them with a firearm, held them against their will, did not use a condom, robbed his victims of their belongings and that he was a Zimbabwean who had entered the country without documents.
One victim told Saturday Citizen Shungu was from her country, but had treated her very badly. He held her at gunpoint and beat her before repeatedly raping her.
A nursing sister, who was attacked from behind while walking home after her shift, said she had tried to fight Shungu but he beat her and stabbed her in both legs. She still had the scars and a livid scar on her wrist from when she tried to kill herself because she was not coping after her ordeal. She still needed counselling.
A social worker said one of the women suffered from post-traumatic stress and was still too scared to come to court. The victims said they had all lost their boyfriends or husbands, because “men don’t understand” and felt that they were somehow complicit in their girlfriend or wife’s rape. – The Citizen
