Serial axe-killer gets 120 years for rape, five murders

By Norman Joseph - CapeArgus.co.za

October 28, 2003

A 41-year-old axeman murderer, labelled a "dangerous criminal" and a "disorganised serial killer" who buried his victims in shallow graves, has been sent to jail for 120 years by the Cape High Court.

Yesterday Zola Jackson Mqomboyi was sentenced to 20 years each for five murders and the rape of a 13-year-old girl. Judge Wilf Thring had convicted him of killing two men, three women and raping a teenager.

Yesterday the judge told Mqomboyi: "The crimes that you committed are chilling, especially the five murders."

Some of the bodies' hands and feet had been cut off, he said.

The investigating officer, Detective Inspector Jonathan Morris, testified how the teenager, who had been raped twice, was suicidal, and that she suffered from flashbacks and trauma.

The five bodies were dug up in January last year by Western Cape police serious violent crimes unit investigators Jonathan Morris, Deon de Villiers and Reynold Talmakkies.

The shallow graves were discovered near Rotterdam Road bordering Mfuleni and Eerste River, after being pointed out by Mqomboyi.

All the killings were committed by Mqomboyi, using an axe, in the Eerste River/Mfuleni area between September 2000 and January last year.

Judge Thring declared Mqomboyi "a dangerous criminal" in terms of Section 286(A) of the Criminal Procedure Act.

Judge Thring ordered that Mqomboyi be brought before the Cape High Court again after serving an effective 20 years in jail.

The judge said: "The community should be protected against you.

"You pose a mental and physical threat to the well-being of others in the community. You did not show remorse for the deeds you've done."

Judge Thring said he agreed with the testimony of Dr Sean Kaliski, head of forensics and psychiatry at Valkenberg Hospital, yesterday that Mqomboyi could not be rehabilitated.

Kaliski told the court that Mqomboyi was a disorganised serial killer and a psychopath, who was a "high risk person".

The court heard that Mqomboyi had been sentenced to four years' imprisonment for robbery in 1992, two years for serious assault in 1993 and an undisclosed jail term coupled with corporal punishment for culpable homicide in 1988.