Lieutenant-Colonel Maxwell Nsele. Picture: SAPS
Durban – Lieutenant-Colonel Maxwell Nsele, who is attached to the KwaZulu-Natal Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Investigations (FCS) unit, has secured 180 life imprisonment sentences and an additional 6 473 years in prison for gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF) perpetrators.
Nsele also put a KZN primary school teacher in prison for 23 years for raping and sexually assaulting pupils.
National police spokesperson Brigadier Athlenda Mathe said the police were observing the 16 days of Activism for No Violence against Women and Children campaign by highlighting the great work of their men and women in blue who continued to secure lengthy jail terms for GBVF perpetrators.
Mathe introduced Nsele, who is attached to the KwaZulu-Natal Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Investigations (FCS) unit.
Nsele is responsible for monitoring all 25 FCS units as well as monitoring and overseeing the Serial and Electronic Crimes unit in KZN.
“During his career, he has secured 180 life imprisonment sentences and an additional 6 473 years in prison for GBVF perpetrators,” Mathe said.
She said these cases included rape, sexual assault, attempted rape, assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm (GBH), kidnapping and abduction.
“He was the lead investigator when a 42-year-old primary school teacher from Dundee was sentenced to 23 years imprisonment for raping and sexually assaulting learners,” Mathe said.
“Eight primary school learners, who are aged between 11 and 14 years, were raped repeatedly between 2015 and 2017 by the teacher until Nsele put a stop to the teacher’s activities.”
Nsele says the teaching and learning environment should be an environment where learners feel and are safe from harm.
“We are working together with the Department of Basic Education to raise awareness in schools on crime. We search for things like drugs and other illicit goods. Most importantly, we raise awareness through our social crime prevention unit on GBVF crimes and that it is a crime for a schoolteacher to get involved with learners,” Nsele said.
Nsele has two cases before the court where a father raped his biological daughter and where a businessman from KwaMsane was terrorising young men in the area. Both suspects are in police custody.
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, KZN police spokesperson Colonel Robert Netshiunda said the KZN FCS Unit started the 16 Days of Activism for No Violence against Women and Children on a positive note when detectives secured five life imprisonment terms for rape, murder, abduction and assault in just more than a week, between November 16 and 27.
Netshiunda said the Pietermaritzburg High Court delivered justice to the family of a four-year-old girl who was raped and murdered by 22-year-old Songezo Mpulampula on September 8, 2023.
“The convicted rapist and murderer, who raped the little girl, killed and burnt her tiny body, was condemned to serve double terms of life imprisonment for the heinous crime,” Netshiunda said.
He said that in Ulundi, the FCS unit detectives worked tirelessly in ensuring that a 52-year-old grandfather from Ulundi was convicted and sentenced to serve life imprisonment by the Mahlabathini Magistrate’s Court for raping his 9-year-old granddaughter. The child confided in her mother and, with the involvement of social workers, the matter was reported to the police which led to the arrest of her grandfather.
Netshiunda said a 15-year-old girl who was reported missing in Nkandla was spotted by neighbours at a homestead in the Vumanhlamvu area. Police were alerted and, on arrival, she informed them that she had been violated by a 33-year-old man who had abducted and raped her between July 7 and 16, 2022. The man was traced and arrested.
“The Nkandla Magistrate’s Court handed down the ultimate sentence and sent the sex pest to spend the rest of his life facing prison walls and an additional five years for kidnapping,” Netshiunda said.
Lastly, Netshiunda said a Nsuze rapist was also sentenced to a life imprisonment sentence by the Maphumulo Regional Court after a guilty verdict was delivered against him for raping his elderly grandmother at Bhamshela on Christmas Day in 2021.
The rapist was arrested two months after the incident and was kept in custody until the day of his sentencing.
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