{{Short description|Swazi serial killer (born 1956)}} {{Multiple issues|{{BLP one source|date=January 2024}} {{BLP sources|date=May 2018}} }} {{Infobox serial killer | name = David Thabo Simelane | image = Simelane_David.webp | image_size = | caption = | alt = | birth_name = | other_names = David Albert Mhlanga | birth_date = {{birth year and age|1956}} | birth_place = Swaziland (Eswatini) | death_date = | death_place = | cause = | conviction = Murder | sentence = Death | victims = 28 confirmed, 45 suspected | beginyear = 2000 | endyear = 2001 | country = Swaziland (Eswatini) | states = Manzini District | apprehended = | imprisoned = }} '''David Thabo Simelane''' (born 1956) is a Swazi serial killer sentenced to death for the murder of 28 women,<ref name=jele /> but is suspected of murdering 45.
== Murders == Simelane left school, although his uncle tried to enable him to attend secondary school.
He testified in court that he had been sentenced to six years' imprisonment for robbing and raping a woman. Then, after his release in 1998, he set out to seek revenge by starting a murder series. The killings lasted from the late 1990s until 2001, when the police arrested him on public grounds.
Simelane made women go with him in the forest. He then tied his victims there and sexually assaulted them, stabbing or strangling them with his bare hands if they resisted too much. He also beheaded many of them, before or after death. Simelane often stole his victims' money and valuables to participate in gambling. Among his victims were several pregnant women.
== Investigation == Shepherds in search of a runaway cow discovered body parts in the Usuthu-Pulp Forest in Malkerns and notified the authorities, who soon asked six South African forensics experts for administrative assistance.
Simelane was arrested on April 25, 2001<ref name=jele /> on a street near the graves and led the police to more graves, from which 45 bodies were found. Even the bodies of four babies were among the dead. Because of the highly advanced decay, Simelane was charged with 34 murders.
He cooperated with investigators and, during his interrogation, confessed to having been wearing the T-shirt of one of his victims.<ref>{{YouTube|id=jvcDh6IrgEg|title="Serial killer David Simelane tells investigators his shirt belonged to a victim"}}</ref>
== Conviction == During the trial he was found guilty of murder in 28 cases and sentenced to death by hanging. He showed no remorse for his actions during his trial.<ref name=jele>{{cite web | website=Swaziland News | title=David Simelane gets death penalty, to be hanged | date=April 2, 2011 | last=Jele | first=Linda | url=http://www.swazilive.com/Swaziland_News/Swaziland_News_Stories.asp?News_id=2722 | url-status=dead | archive-date=June 9, 2020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200609120309/http://www.swazilive.com/Swaziland_News/Swaziland_News_Stories.asp?News_id=2722}}</ref>
After an appeal to the Swazi Supreme Court in November 2011, it was decided that the trial took an inadmissibly long time, but the death sentence that awaited Simelane has been confirmed.
==See also== *List of serial killers by number of victims
== References == <references />
== External links == * [http://www.times.co.sz/News/63119.html Artikel über Simelane] in the Times of Swaziland * [https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-12947694 Artikel] from BBC News
{{DEFAULTSORT:Simelane, David Thabo}} Category:1956 births Category:21st-century crimes in Africa Category:1990s crimes in Africa Category:2000s in Swaziland Category:2000s murders in Africa Category:2000 murders in Africa Category:2001 murders in Africa Category:Living people Category:Swazi serial killers Category:Crime in Eswatini Category:Murder in Eswatini Category:Violence against women in Eswatini Category:Swazi people convicted of murder Category:Swazi prisoners sentenced to death Category:Swazi rapists Category:People convicted of murder by Swaziland Category:Prisoners sentenced to death by Swaziland