VUYO MKIZE
THEY wore black balaclavas, used crowbars to forcibly yank house doors open and stole household and personal belongings before raping their victims.
This was the modus operandi that investigating officer Sergeant Elphius Mushwana said was used by two Soweto men who are accused of breaking into seven women’s homes between April 2009 and April last year.
The pair, Jacinto Chilenge, 26, and Felix Machava, 33, are facing 37 charges, including rape, compelling a person 18 years or older to witness a sexual act, housebreaking with the intent to rob, robbery with aggravating circumstances, and the unlawful possession of firearms and ammunition.
“In January 2010 I received six Dobsonville dockets as part of a request to help with investigations,” Mushwana told the Johannesburg High Court yesterday.
“I realised from the dockets which I was analysing that they (the accused) entered the premises by using a crowbar to open the doors, they wore balaclavas, and there were cellphones taken.
“It made me conclude that the people who committed the crimes were the same (in each case).
Machava also faces an additional charge of escape after he tried to flee from police custody on the day of his arrest on April 22 last year in Slovoville on the West Rand, where the two lived.
The trial continues.