For 31 years Reflilwe Tladi has lived with the knowledge that the men who raped her as a child were never found.
Justice for her was never served.
It is for this reason that the police sergeant, who is now 44, is driven to hunt down rapists and bring them to book.
Tladi has been in the family violence, child protection and sexual offences unit in Gauteng for 11 years.
Last week, her and her team's efforts paid off for several women who were victims of serial rapist Sello Abram Mapunya.
Mapunya, 33, terrorised communities in Tshwane between 2014 and 2019.
Last week, he was found guilty of 70 counts of rape, house breaking, robbery, assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and assault in the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria.
He was sentenced to 1,088 years in prison.
Like many serial rapists, Mapunya was brazen and sadistic in his pursuit of his victims. The terror and pain he unleashed is unspeakable.
Tracking him down required stellar police work.
As Tladi explained, the more police probed, the more cases came up with a similar modus operandi.
“We traced the cases and realised that there were more cases in Atteridgeville and Olievenhoutbosch where the suspect broke into the victims’ homes between 1am and 4am, robbed them of their possessions and raped them,” she said.
For Tladi, taking Mapunya off the streets was a moment to celebrate closure for his victims.
It was also a reminder that with dedication to effective policing, the system can work to deliver justice for many victims who have given up hope of ever finding such.
Ours is one of the most dangerous countries for women to live in. According to police statistics, at least 12,133 sexual offence cases were reported between January and March alone.
These attacks on mostly women and children happen not only because of an entrenched culture of rape and abuse, but because those who commit such crimes believe that the system is broken and therefore chances of getting caught are often slim to none.
We therefore applaud the work of Tladi and her team in this regard. This case is a demonstration of what can be done when police are committed to the job and capacitated to do the complex work of pursuing dangerous criminals.
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