How young Limpopo detective put double rapist behind bars for life

A young Limpopo detective's determination to bring down a double rapist has paid off with the man's conviction.

Det Sgt Mulalo Yvonne Manyuwa, of the Musina family violence, child protection and sexual offences unit, helped secure two life sentences for Livhuwani Christopher Tshilande, 30, who raped two women in 2016 and 2017.

The Musina regional court also gave him a 23-year jail term for robbery and housebreaking with the intention to rape.

In his first attack, Tshilande accosted a 29-year-old in Mutele village in April 2016. He raped her before stealing her cellphone.

Tshilande was arrested six days later at his workplace in a nearby town. “He's from a nearby village so people knew him [and] where he worked. We got information that he was at work,” said Manyuwa. 

During his first trial, Tshilande raped another young woman in Tshivaloni village as she was walking home from a shebeen in May 2017. 

“Then after ... she went home the suspect followed her and broke into her house and raped her there [again]," Manyuwa told TimesLIVE. 

Tshilande was arrested for the second time — at the same place as his initial arrest — this time after a tip-off from a relative. He had continued working and his employer had even paid to bail him out.

“It was very difficult ... even when we opposed bail, I did tell the prosecutor about his behaviour [and] after he got bail [the first time] I felt we should stop him but then he continued and committed another offence,” said Manyuwa, 35, who has been a police officer for 17 years.

“Even after the second [incident], I was hoping he wouldn't get bail again,” she said. The setback only pushed Manyuwa and her team harder to help secure his conviction, which came almost five years after the first incident.

His sentence came as a relief, said Manyuwa, “because with such criminals, you won't know what he's going to do next. Even though it doesn't erase the trauma and the pain of the complainants, I'm satisfied about the conviction. He's locked away [and] that's where he belongs”

TimesLIVE