A father of five children (one of whom is now dead) has admitted to a horrendous swathe of crimes against women and girls, including multiple rapes, that he carried out near the seaside town of Hermanus in the Western Cape over three years until he was caught in mid-2018.

Mlondolozi Ntulo, 31, subsequently entered into a plea agreement with the state and on Thursday was sentenced to 385 years, plus four life terms, in jail.

The sentences making up the 385 years, and three of the life terms, are to run concurrently with the fourth life term, meaning he is set to serve a life sentence.

Out of the detail-dense 36-page plea and sentencing agreement Ntulo entered with the state, 17 pages are filled with the basic facts about the crimes, including kidnapping, robbery and rape, that he admitted to.

At least 12 women and three teen girls were targeted during his nearly three-year rape spree.

Only a few managed to escape him.

“The accused admits that he was familiar with the area around Zwelihle [a township near Hermanus] and in particular the dumping site commonly referred to as the ‘Mop’. Using his knowledge of this geographical area, he would accost the various complaints who were either on their way from or to work, or to their houses, when they were walking alone,” the plea and sentencing document said.

“These attacks were launched on them late at night or early in the morning.  He would cover his face with a pantyhose in most instances, to hide his identity and not to be recognised by the complainants.”

This disguise stuck with those he attacked.

“The fact that his face was covered and that they were not able to see or identify him is for most of the complainants still a haunting memory,” the plea document said.

Western Cape police, according to a statement issued by spokesperson Frederick van Wyk, said officers had started investigating a serial rape case in March 2016.

But those attacked could not provide a description of the man who had targeted them.

Van Wyk said DNA subsequently linked Ntulo to 15 attacks.

According to the plea and sentencing agreement, the case against Ntulo was indicative of a much broader countrywide problem.

“The occurrence of serious and violent crime against women and children has reached alarming proportions in our society,” it said.

“The prevalence cannot be overstated enough not just in this Division, but in the country as a whole. “

Details of how Ntulo’s life of extreme crime seemingly abruptly started and eventually came to an end were detailed in the plea and sentencing agreement.

It said that around 8 August 2015, he targeted a woman in Zwelihle, breaking into her home.

“He got onto her bed and the complainant woke up, he put a knife against her throat threatening to kill her if she resisted. He took off her underwear and raped her… She sustained two cuts on her left hand when she tried to fight off the accused.”

After this, Ntulo attacked women – mostly targeting them when they were walking alone either late at night or very early in the morning – on a near monthly basis until December 2015.

Four days before Christmas that year Ntulo threatened a 16-year-old girl with a knife and forced her to walk with him to the dumpsite that became his go-to spot for raping women.

He robbed the girl of her cellphone and raped her.

“In 2016 the attacks resumed from March 2016 to June 2016 and thereafter sporadically in December 2016, March 2017, February and March 2018,” the plea agreement said.

On the first day of December 2016 he targeted a 15-year-old girl, forcing her to walk with him at knifepoint to the dumpsite, where he raped her.

Fast-forward to 1 March 2018 and Ntulo targeted a 14-year-old girl, also forcing her to walk with him at knifepoint.

The plea and sentencing agreement hinted at just how ruthless and relentless Ntulo was.

It explained that the girl had been walking from a graveyard around 7pm and at some point, had split from her friends to head to her house.

“[Ntulo] was walking on the opposite road, he accosted her, pulled out a knife and demanded her cellular telephone. He held the knife against her neck and forced her to walk to the dumping site the Mop,” the plea and sentencing agreement said.

“He forced her to undress and to lay on a big rock, he raped her. After a while he stopped and took her to another spot where he raped her again. When he was done he took her to a different spot further on into the dumping site, forced her to bend over and raped her again.”

The girl, who Ntulo also threatened to kill, eventually managed to kick him and run away. 

“The attacks were brazen in that the Accused did not even worry that there were other people around where he ambushed the victims,” the plea and sentencing agreement said.

“His threats towards the complainants also became more aggressive.”

Ntulo’s rape and crime spree finally came to an end when he was arrested on 25 May 2018. He has been detained since then.

He subsequently admitted to the crimes and that he was linked to these via DNA.

The plea and sentencing agreement gave some insight into Ntulo’s personal circumstances.

Ntulo, it said, went to school until Grade 8 and then did general work in the construction sector.

Over weekends he would do private work. Ntulo initially earned around R1 500 weekly.

He had four minor children (a fifth had died) who were in the care of two mothers and he supported them “on a rotational basis.”

“He admits that during the commission of these crimes that he could distinguish between right and wrong and act accordingly,” the plea and sentencing agreement said.

“The accused accepts that his actions were wrongful and unlawful.”

Before raping and attacking women between 2015 and 2018, there was no record of Ntulo committing other crimes.

“[He] shows remorse and apologises to the various families for the heartache caused,” the plea and sentencing agreement said.

But it further stated there were no reasons compelling enough to deviate from the applicable minimum jail terms he faced. 

The woman and girls who Ntulo had attacked were satisfied with the plea and sentencing agreement between him and the state. DM