25-07-2025
KZN fake pastor jailed for raping children
The Nquthu Regional Court in KZN has sentenced a man who posed as a pastor to 10 life terms and an additional 70 years in prison after he was found guilty of multiple counts of child rape, sexual assault and exposing minors to pornography.
The Witness reports that Mandlelisa Mabhale (58) was arrested on September 22, 2022, at a hiding place in the Luvisi area.
He was subsequently charged with a series of crimes involving the abuse and exploitation of children.
According to KZN SAPS spokesperson Constable Thenjiswa Ngcobo, Mabhale made his initial court appearance in the Nquthu Magistrate's Court. His several bids for bail were opposed.
Ngcobo said that in 2022, a child minder of four children overheard people talking about a pastor who had a reputation for violating young children.
'The conversation caught the minder's interest because the children she was looking after frequented the place of the pastor and would spend a considerable amount of time in his company. The children would also assist Mabhale when he was doing his odd jobs of fixing electrical appliances,' she said.
When they arrived home, the child minder asked the four children if Mahbale had done anything to them, but the children did not answer her. However, the children later confessed to their mother that the pastor had been raping them.
The matter was immediately reported to the police, and an investigation uncovered that Mabhale had raped at least 10 children.
'The victims, who are all minors, informed police detectives that the pastor would lure them to his rented room at Ndidini area where he would make them watch pornographic material and then rape them,' Ngcbobo says.
The matter was transferred to the Nquthu Regional Court, where the suspects pleaded not guilty to all charges against him.
Ngcbobo says the investigative work by the detectives was enough to convince the court to hand down the ultimate sentence to Mabhale.
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