6 months ago
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A Gauteng cop has told of how he spent sleepless nights piecing together information and coming up with new ways to help him catch a serial rapist in Ekurhuleni.
As each day passed, he felt he was failing the victims.
When W/O Tlala John Mokoena was assigned the case in 2020, there were 70 dockets, and by the time he caught Nkosinathi Phakathi in March 2021, there were more rape cases opened against him.
The 43-year-old cop said Phakathi's reign of terror began in 2012, and his victims lived in Benoni, Daveyton, Putfontein, Crystal Park and Etwatwa, all on the East Rand.
Mokoena ended up investigating 96 dockets.
But it was his determination and hard work that led to the arrest of Phakathi, who was on Friday given 42 life terms and 791 years behind bars.
For Mokoena, who works in the Gauteng Serial and Electronic Crime Investigations (SECI) unit which investigates serial rapists and offenders involved in child pornography, this was by far the biggest serial rapist case he has ever dealt with.
Phakathi’s cases were sent to SECI as there were no leads and had gone cold.
"We [Mokoena and his team] had sleepless nights because how do you sleep at night whenever rape is reported? You keep thinking, 'this [man] is continuing [with his crimes]', and the victims are saying, Mokoena and the team that has been assembled are our hope."
Mokoena said investigating the matter was complex because he did not have the suspect's name, face or fingerprints and there were no eyewitnesses. He only relied on the statements that were provided by the victims.
Police spokesperson Col Dimakatso Nevhuhulwi said Phakathi left no biological forensic evidence (e.g. blood, body fluids except those collected from victims, no hair and other tissues), no latent print evidence and no trace evidence.
"He was very meticulous," said Nevhuhulwi.
Mokoena and a task team which included cops, a clinical psychologist and a criminologist spent three months studying the piles of dockets.
"We needed to get into the mind of this guy because we never had a profile of this man. We needed to create one by reading the dockets of this man, checking his patterns, the times [he would normally pounce on his victims].
"We wanted to know everything. How he thinks, how he talks. We had to put all [those things] together so that we can have a profile so we can predict where he will go, when he will go there, and what time he would hit," Mokoena said.
The investigation also included visiting municipal offices in Ekurhuleni as in some instances, Phakathi had told his victims he was a municipal worker.
Mokoena said the team interviewed many people and obtained DNA samples from about 500 employees whose profiles were "close to the offender we were looking for".
He said his team was also watching over about 19 schools and had also interviewed and obtained DNA from 50 sub-constructors with over 1,000 employees.
The father of four said the investigation was complex because 61 of the cases happened at the victims' homes.
But one day, just weeks before Phakathi was arrested, Mokoena said he was driving around in Crystal Park and randomly took pictures of people he suspected could be Phakathi.
One of the pictures he took was of a man who he later found out was Phakathi, walking with a 16-year-old teen at the time. He then circulated it to his team and asked if the man pictured could be their suspect.
Later that day, the 16-year-old reported that she had been raped by the same man Mokoena had taken a picture of.
However, his breakthrough came three weeks later when the grandparents of a 13-year-old victim contacted him and informed him that the girl had seen the perpetrator in Etwatwa.
"I followed him and he started running, and I dropped a pin location to the [the team] I was working with asking them to come in numbers so that we can arrest him. A chase ensued and it took about 15 minutes... we ran for about 2km. I was the first policeman to ever see him and to even chase him and that guy can run," he said.
"After finally catching up with him, I really cried that day, there was a lot that was invested into this case, the hours we put into looking into him. I have seen and interviewed children as young as nine narrating the story of how this guy violated them. I never thought I carried so much pain and emotions within me but I was happy, shocked, crying and I was glad that I finally caught him."
Mokoena said samples had been collected from the victims with a rape kit sent to the forensic science laboratory for analysis.
"That is why we knew back in 2017 that it was the work of a single person. [It was] through DNA collected from the victims. At that time it is not known who it belonged to. Then upon his arrest, we collected his reference sample (his DNA) through swabbing.
"We then forwarded his samples to the laboratory for analysis and comparison... The analysis showed that his DNA matched those samples [from victims]..."
This is not the first time Mokoena had nailed serial rapists.
In 2018, his meticulous work led to Gift Lebogang Mokoena (no relation), who was targeting women using a minibus taxi, to be given 13 life terms and 340 years behind bars for rape and other crimes.
In 2019, Mokoena was voted and crowned the Laurette winner at the SA Police Service 6th National Excellence Awards.
National police spokesperson Brig Athlenda Mathe said Mokoena walked away with a brand-new vehicle and a monetary award.
"He is also a two times back-to-back recipient of the National Commissioners Special Award," Mathe said.
Mokoena is a family-oriented man, and when he is not working, he spends time taking walks with them.
"We go to malls and consume whatever is sweet, especially ice cream. [We] watch documentaries and I am also a soccer fan, now and then we go to stadiums as a family.
"I also cook, every now and then my family gets a treat from my very investigative hands, [and] I bake too," he said.
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