Sipho Mandla Agmatir Thwala is a South African

rapist Rape is a type of sexual assault involving sexual intercourse, or other forms of sexual penetration, carried out against a person without consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or against a person wh ...

and

serial killer A serial killer (also called a serial murderer) is a person who murders three or more people,An offender can be anyone: * * * * * (This source only requires two people) with the killings taking place over a significant period of time in separat ...

who was convicted in 1999 for the murders of 16 women and 10 rapes. He was sentenced to 506 years in prison. Thwala was known by the moniker the Phoenix Strangler.

Early life

Sipho Mandla Agmatir Thwala was born and raised in

KwaMashu KwaMashu is a township north of Durban, South Africa. The name honours Sir Marshall Campbell and means ''Place of Marshall''. KwaMashu is bordered by Newlands East to the south, Newlands West to the west, Ntuzuma to the north, Phoenix to the ...

Crimes

Thwala began his year-long rape and murder spree in 1996 in South Africa's

KwaZulu-Natal KwaZulu-Natal (, also referred to as KZN) is a Provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa that was created in 1994 when the government merged the Zulu people, Zulu bantustan of KwaZulu ("Place of the Zulu" in Zulu language, Zulu) and ...

province.Serial Killer Hit List
/ref> His

modus operandi A (often shortened to M.O. or MO) is an individual's habits of working, particularly in the context of business or criminal investigations, but also generally. It is a Latin phrase, approximately translated as . Term The term is often used in ...

was to lure local women into accompanying him through the

sugarcane Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of tall, Perennial plant, perennial grass (in the genus ''Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar Sugar industry, production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with stout, jointed, fib ...

fields of

Mount Edgecombe Mount Edgecombe or Mt Edgecombe is a town in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, situated just north of Durban, which forms part of eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality, eThekwini, the Greater Durban Metropolitan area. Much of the suburb is cordoned off a ...

near the town of Phoenix with the promise of employment as domestic workers in nearby hotels. Once they were deep within the cane fields, Thwala would attack the women, bind them with their own undergarments and then rape and strangle them to death. He relied on physical evidence of his attacks being destroyed through the common farming practice of burning cane fields, which set the police investigation back until a body was eventually discovered that had not yet been burned. The killer became known as "the Phoenix Strangler".

Arrest and conviction

Thwala was arrested in 1997 after South African police matched

DNA Deoxyribonucleic acid (; DNA) is a polymer composed of two polynucleotide chains that coil around each other to form a double helix. The polymer carries genetic instructions for the development, functioning, growth and reproduction of al ...

found on the victims to DNA taken from Thwala in 1994 when he had been arrested and acquitted of a rape.Discovery Channel: Crimes and Forensics. ''Crimes That Shook The World.''
On 31 March 1999, the High Court in

Durban Durban ( ; , from meaning "bay, lagoon") is the third-most populous city in South Africa, after Johannesburg and Cape Town, and the largest city in the Provinces of South Africa, province of KwaZulu-Natal. Situated on the east coast of South ...

found Thwala guilty of 16 murders and 10 rapes and sentenced him to 506 years in prison. Thwala is being held at C Max Penitentiary in

Pretoria Pretoria ( ; ) is the Capital of South Africa, administrative capital of South Africa, serving as the seat of the Executive (government), executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to the country. Pretoria strad ...

, South Africa.

In popular media

Thwala's case is featured in episodes 8 and 9 of the

Showmax Showmax is a subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service that launched in South Africa on 19 August 2015. Its majority owner is MultiChoice, which owns 70% of the Showmax group, while American conglomerate NBCUniversal owns 3 ...

drama series, '' Catch Me a Killer'', released in February 2024. The series dramatises cases in which

forensic psychologist Forensic psychology is the application of scientific knowledge and methods (in relation to psychology) to assist in answering legal questions that may arise in criminal, civil, contractual, or other judicial proceedings. Forensic psychology includes ...

and investigator

Micki Pistorius Micki Pistorius is a South African forensic or investigative psychologist and author. She was the first woman in her profession and the first profiler in South Africa, working on many high-profile cases involving serial killers for the South A ...

help to obtain a conviction.

Early life

Crimes

Arrest and conviction

In popular media

See also

References

Further reading