Christopher Mhlengwa Zikode: South African Serial Killer & Rapist
Donnybrook, a tiny village in South Africa rich with its tribal cultures and traditions where one such tradition includes faction fights. The two Nigerian tribal groups that shifted to this village were rivals.
It was quite common for the villagers to witness both the parties fighting which would eventually turn into a physical fight. They were periodic hunters too. They killed animals and some of them off the record claim that they killed humans too back in ancient times.
Christopher Mhlengwa Zikode was born in the year 1974 to this village under a tribal family. He grew up witnessing his family fight ferociously with the enemy tribe. He even learned how to use modernized guns during the fight.
His father taught him all sorts of defense artworks along with a detailed course on how to kill a human clean. Never did he know that his son would turn into an expert serial killer and rapist with the talents he received from his father.
The Donnybrook Killer
Zikode grew up to be one of the finest fighters in their tribal group. However, his aim was not to diminish the rival tribes. His mother had died while giving birth to him, hence he was taken care of by the men in his family. Thus the only women he met in his life were the tribal girls.
In the year 1993, 21-year-old Christopher was arrested for the attempted murder of Beauty Zulu, daughter of tribal community head. He claimed it was a mistake and said that he never approached Zulu, intended to kill her, and she had misunderstood him. With a lack of evidence, he received bail.
After a year since this incident, Zikode left the village without telling anybody. A month after that Donnybrook started witnessing the most horrific crimes. Multiple families were killed and the women from the family were brutally raped of which some of them were killed too.
The women who survived the massacre did not have to think twice before revealing the monster behind their family’s death and their self-respect. All of them stated only one name and it was Christopher Mhlengwa Zikode. The police force was baffled. Why would a man who left his village come back to rape the women from the same village?
Two years, ranging from 1993-1995, eighteen plus crimes that included rape and murder. The police finally got hold of Zikode while he was trying to attack a woman near a footpath. After the suspect was narrowed down, the police used to keep watch.
Once their informer passed a notice to the department stating that Zikode had reached the village they started to follow him silently and the police force was able to catch him red-handed.
Final Arrest of Christopher Mhlengwa Zikode
Eight murders, five rapes, five attempted murders, and one indecent assault. Zikobe was charged for over twenty-one crimes and his case was cracked open by South Africa’s finest forensic profiler and psychologist, Dr.Micki Pistorius. His file was studied and he helped in the proceedings that followed Zikode’s arrest.
According to Pistorius, Zikobe possessed a sexual urgency that was carved out of ruthless torture and inhumanity. He enjoyed torturing women while performing intercourse with them.
Modus Operandi and Trial
His modus operandi was to choose the women from church reception, locate their house and kick the door in, to everyone’s shock. As a precautionary and first step, he would shoot all the men and boys of the house until they were dead.
Later he would drag the women onto the plantation fields nearby and rape them up to five hours constantly. If any of them try to resist him he would shoot and kill them at first and later perform necrophilia.
Sometimes the women were attacked near footpaths too. He was always sure to choose a house next to plantations or fields. Also, each of the murders was committed within a seven-kilometer radius.
His contemptible attitude towards women was probably due to the exposure to violence he had as a child and growing up in an abusive community.
His trial went on for a year starting from 1996-1997 and he was sentenced to imprisonment for 140 years on January 7, 1997.
