Just five days before she was murdered, Olorato Mongale was shopping with her mom in a Bloemfontein mall when a charming man named John approached her, struck up a conversation and told her she was beautiful.
Both women laughed about it later, with her mother telling her: “He’s not really your type.”
That man was Philangenkosi Makhanya, who went on to woo Mongale, 30, until she agreed to go on a date. Within two hours of being picked up at her apartment in Atholl, Johannesburg, she was beaten to death and her body was thrown onto a pavement a few kilometres away in Lombardy East.
This week evidence emerged that Makhanya, who was killed by police in a shoot-out in Amanzimtoti on Friday, made a habit of targeting young women with an accomplice, Bongani Mthimkhulu, striking mainly in Gauteng, the Free State and Mpumalanga.
Mthimkhula, who is believed to have been in the car when Mongale was killed, is on the run.
Police said on Saturday that more than 20 other women had come forward and identified Mthimkhulu and Makhanya as the men who had kidnapped and robbed them.
The only suspect arrested for Mongale’s murder, Fezile Ngubane, was released on Saturday after he was cleared of involvement.
Mongale’s family fear that with one suspect dead and another on the run, they may never find out what happened in the final hours of her life.
On Friday, they denounced “the cruelty of strangers” who asked why she had climbed into the car of a man she did not know well.
Family spokesperson Criselda Kananda told the Sunday Times that as Mongale’s loved ones tried to deal with their pain, “people come with this nonsense of ‘How can you get into the car of a stranger?’”
“Has our nation gone so crazy that this is what we teach our children? That a romantic proposal must first be seen as a probability of murder?
“Ask your own mom and dad where and how they met. At some point everyone is a stranger. These men should not even have been on the streets. Olorato did nothing wrong. People must stop this victim blaming.”
Mongale had shared her live location with a friend, and had also asked her to call her at intervals. Sharing this live location ultimately enabled police to track the suspects.
Describing Mongale’s first encounter with Makhanya, Kananda said she and her mother Keabetswe had been shopping at a Mr Price.
“Her mother thought it was cute that this strange guy thought Olorato was pretty. But she did say to Olo that she was surprised that she gave him her number. ‘I know your type and he isn’t your type,’ she told her.”
Kananda said the family had been “heartbroken” when they found that Makhanya and Mthimkhulu had been released on bail in April for a previous case in Brakpan, also involving the kidnapping and robbery of a woman. The bail was not opposed by the state.
“That absolutely breaks all our hearts. The system is broken,” Kananda said. “Our parole and bail approaches need to be urgently reconsidered. Men like these do what they want and don’t care because they know even if they are caught, they will be back.”
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) did not respond to questions about why the prosecutor did not oppose bail, and what the bail conditions were.
Kananda said the family was struggling to find closure without being able to face her killer or killers. “We need to know what the motivation was and why she was picked. It is difficult to put the lid on when you don’t know what is in the pot.”
She said police had been “inundated with calls by other women who claim to have been robbed by these men”, showing it was no crime of opportunity or isolated incident.
“They met her in Bloem ... killed her in Johannesburg and then fled to KwaZulu-Natal. All the way they were living in various lodges. They had access to cloned number plates and various vehicles. This is not just a normal robbing crew.”
Kananda said she had spoken to some of the other victims who had come forward.
“One young woman told me that the Truecaller app saved her life. She met this John in much the same way as Olorato. They swapped numbers and made plans for a date.
“She then fed his number into Truecaller and got his real name. On the day of the date he arrived with a friend in his car. They told her to get in the car so they could drive to a specific destination. She refused to do so alone and demanded that a friend join her,” Kananda said.
“On the way to their destination the girl realised they had deviated from the route they were supposed to take and called him out using his real name. The driver violently swung around and asked her why she was calling him that name. She told him that she had researched him on Truecaller and that John was his slave name.
“They all laughed at that but soon afterwards he pulled over and they robbed the two women at knifepoint. When they threw them out of the car the driver said: ‘We don’t feel like killing today.’”
Kananda said another victim was an engineer who had just been paid her first bonus when the two men struck. “They stole all her money but she escaped with her life.”
The father of another victim of the duo, who asked not to be identified, said: “My daughter is still traumatised. We already took her for counselling, but when this horrible story of Olorato hit the headlines, she was retraumatised all over again.”
He said the men used the same modus operandi.
“He asked for her number and said he wanted to take her to a movie and afterwards to lunch. In the car they held her at knife point, poking her several times with the knife. Eventually she managed to run away, but not before they had emptied her bank account and taken her phone.”
Police spokesperson Brig Athlenda Mathe said yesterday Ngubane’s father had handed him in at the KwaMashu police station on Friday when he learnt that his son was sought by police.
But detectives discovered Ngubane was himself a victim of Makhanya’s, who lived in the same neighbourhood.
“Makhanya allegedly identified Ngubane as a soft target and took his ID smartcard and used it to Rica SIM cards that Makhanya would use to commit his crimes targeted at young women. At times it’s alleged that he would use Ngubane’s bank card to buy at various clothing stores.”
She said Ngubane’s ID was among 27 ID cards found in Makhanya’s possession.
Police also took statements from Makhanya’s parents, Mathe said.
“Police are sitting with at least 20 cases where women have come forward identifying the suspects as those that kidnapped and robbed them. Some of these cases were reported in Potchefstroom, Bloemfontein, Midrand, Ogies and Nelspruit [Mbombela] in Mpumalanga, Pretoria and Johannesburg.”
She said the search for Mthimkhulu was continuing.
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