Rustenburg - A 37-year-old man was sentenced to life imprisonment for threatening and raping his 12-year-old niece, in 2018, in Batlharos in the Northern Cape.
"During 2018 the accused and his 12-year-old niece were alone at home in Maruping village when her mother went to town. The accused threatened the victim and raped her in the bedroom," Northern Cape police spokesperson Lieutenant-Colonel Sergio Kock said in a statement.
He said the girl was afraid to speak out, but her aunt came across a notebook where she wrote a letter about the rape incident.
"On September 24, 2020, a rape case was registered and the uncle was subsequently arrested. On October 10, 2022, the accused was found guilty of rape and sentenced to life imprisonment in the Mothibistad Regional Court.
"He was also declared unfit to possess a firearm, and his name is registered in the National Sexual Offences Register."
In Limpopo, police said a 52-year-old man was arrested together with two other men, aged 40 and 48, for allegedly killing his estranged wife.
The body of the 47-year-old woman was found in a pool of blood at her home in Onverwacht, outside Lephalale, in June 2021.
"The intelligence-driven probe established that the deceased's husband allegedly hired two hitmen to kill his wife, Sbongile Ditsela, at their house in Onverwacht," Limpopo police spokesperson Lieutenant-Colonel Mamphaswa Seabi said in a statement.
"On the day in question, the suspect had come to the house to make arrangements to collect his daughter after school. After the domestic worker opened for him, he went straight to the bedroom where he found his wife lying in a pool of blood with multiple stab wounds.
"Police were called to the scene and upon arrival, they found that the suspects broke the window to gain access to the bedroom without anyone inside the house noticing. The suspects took the deceased's cellphone and car keys. The deceased was also found strangled with a rope."
Seabi said the first suspect was arrested on October 7 in Ga-Makanye village. The deceased's husband was arrested on Sunday at his other house in Ga-Seleka village in Lephalale, and the third suspect was arrested in Mankweng on Tuesday.
IOL