Justice at last as Jeppestown killer is found guilty on 125 counts

Serial housebreaker, rapist and murderer Mkhululi Chonco has been convicted on 125 criminal charges in the Johannesburg High Court, following a dramatic five-year trial.

For six months between 2013 and 2014, Chonco committed dozens of break-ins across three central Johannesburg suburbs that left four people dead, two women raped and numerous others hospitalised or traumatised. 

In one particularly brazen incident, less than a day after raping one of his victims, he phoned her to ask her to be his girlfriend - while she was giving a police statement.

It wasn’t a crack forensic team that ultimately nabbed Chonco, but rather officers in a patrol car in Jeppestown who noticed a suspicious man in dark clothes carrying a Nike bag.

When the officers searched him, they found him carrying a loaded gun, bullets, screwdrivers, three cellphones and a balaclava.

When police later searched his home, they found the evidence that would eventually lead to his downfall. His house was filled with ID books stolen from his victims, engraved watches, wallets and phones.

During his crime spree, Chonco would break into homes across Fairview, Malvern and Jeppestown, armed and recklessly firing at people, pets and property. No fewer than 25 case dockets were opened against him.

On Friday, Chonco was found guilty of 125 of the 128 charges, including four rapes, four murders, dozens of housebreaking counts and over a dozen attempted murders. He dodged three charges relating to an incident where the witnesses could not be found to testify.

According to the state’s lengthy indictment, written in detail by prosecutor Maro Papachristoforou, Chonco often did not act alone, with multiple crimes often occurring on a single night.

In one of the first documented incidents, on December 7 2013, Chonco and an accomplice broke into four homes on the same street, completing a spate of crimes in only two hours.

At the first home in Belgravia (in Jeppestown), a couple woke up around 3am with Chonco aiming his gun at the man’s head. After taking their phones, Chonco fired without provocation. The resident was able to escape without fatal injuries.

Directly after this, Chonco and the accomplice entered another home nearby, kicking down the door and waking the family inside. The family’s phones were taken, as well as two pairs of running shoes, before the robbers ran to their next target.

Forcing their way into a third home, Chonco shot a man in front of his brother, simply because he did not have a cellphone to steal.

The pair of criminals then approached another home on the same street. This time they knocked on the door of Nonhlanhla Magazi, warning that she would be shot if she did not open her door. After complying, Magazi was robbed of her cellphone at gunpoint.

Two men were fired at as Chonco and his accomplice fled from the area.

Chonco continued his crime spree until his arrest.

Throughout the trial, he insisted that he was innocent. He was adamant that he could not have committed any of the crimes between December 2013 and February 2014, claiming he was in KwaZulu-Natal during this time.

However, he could not explain how his DNA had been found at multiple crime scenes during that time.

Chonco’s sentencing proceedings will continue later this year.