Daveyton serial rapist trial postponed amid safety fears

The Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, sitting at the Benoni Magistrate's Court, has postponed the matter involving serial rapist Sipho Lucas Phiri to Monday, November 17, after Phiri's legal representative reported ill on Thursday.

The postponement comes as several calls have been made for the former Prasa employee to be moved to a single cell for safety reasons.

On Wednesday, Phiri testified that after his arrest in 2023, while he was detained at the Modderbee Correctional Facility, there were threats made against his life.

Phiri, dubbed the Daveyton/Thembisa serial rapist, informed the court that one of the 37 complainants had posted an article about him on Facebook. This post alleged that his life was in danger.

“The person wrote that at Modderbee, they should try to hide me away and put me in a single cell because my life was in danger,” Phiri testified.

Phiri further stated that the same complainant revealed that her boyfriend is an inmate at the same correctional facility where he is being held, adding that he refused to be moved because he is innocent of the crimes levelled against him.

Phiri is facing more than 140 counts, including rape, kidnapping, pointing of a firearm, fraud, obstruction of justice, forcing someone to witness a sexual act, and contraventions of the Police and Firearms Control Acts.

He is accused of raping at least 37 women and younger victims between 2018 and 2023.

However, the 39-year-old has professed his innocence, claiming the sex against many of his victims was consensual. This is despite the fact that many of his victims were minors at the time of their ordeals.

This week, Phiri complained to the court that his face was published in the media from the time of his arrest, which he felt encouraged the public to "prosecute" him.

Phiri has been linked to some of the cases against him through DNA evidence, which has connected him to at least 18 victims, many of whom were allegedly assaulted after Phiri offered them lifts while wearing his uniform.

His trial is ongoing, and bail has been denied as police continue investigating additional cases.

Phiri's case resumed on Monday, following his previous appearance on July 14. Over the course of the trial, since its start in August 2024, more than 60 witnesses, including complainants, crime experts, a forensic expert from the SAPS Forensic Science Laboratory in Pretoria, and the investigating officer, as well as the Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit, have taken the stand.

siyabonga.sithole@inl.co.za