- High Court in Bloemfontein upheld the woman’s conviction as an accomplice to rape.
- Judges found she incited the xenophobic attack by encouraging two men to rape her tenant.
- Her life sentence was set aside and replaced with 12 years’ imprisonment.
Nyaleng Taaibosch has lost her appeal against her conviction, after the High Court in Bloemfontein found that she intentionally encouraged the gang rape of her Zimbabwean tenant during a xenophobic attack.
Although the court upheld her conviction as an accomplice to rape, it found there were substantial and compelling reasons to reduce her life sentence to 12 years in prison.
Judge C Van Zyl, with Acting Judge T Dean, delivered the appeal judgment on 17 September 2026. The judges concluded that the evidence strongly supported the trial court’s finding that Taaibosch helped facilitate the rape committed by Shuping Sydney Gopane and another unidentified man.
Tenant was targeted inside her own home
The complainant had rented two rooms in Taaibosch’s house in Bloemfontein and said they had a good relationship before the attack. On the evening of 2 October 2008, she came home after taking Taaibosch’s young daughter to have her hair braided and found several people gathered at the house, including Gopane.
She told the court that Taaibosch singled her out because she was Zimbabwean, saying, “This is the lady. She thinks she is a foreigner.” Taaibosch then allegedly told the men, “You can do whatever you feel like doing with her,” before adding that they should kill her afterwards.
According to the complainant, Taaibosch left the house with the other visitors, locked the door from the outside, and left her alone with the two men.
Brutal assault and escape
The complainant testified that Gopane and the second man repeatedly beat her with their fists, burned her with cigarette stubs, and forced her into her bedroom. A knife was held to her neck before both men raped her, taking turns throughout the ordeal.
She eventually convinced the men to let her fetch water from the kitchen. Once there, she opened a window, climbed onto a cupboard, and escaped through it before running almost naked to a friend’s house, where the friend immediately called the police.
Police later tracked down Gopane after the complainant identified him as one of the men she had seen earlier that day at a nearby tavern. Taaibosch was arrested the next day.
Appeal court rejects defence
Both Taaibosch and Gopane denied the rape during the trial. Gopane claimed he had only helped the complainant after she had allegedly been robbed in the street, while Taaibosch insisted that she ran from the house with her child after both women were attacked.
The appeal court rejected these accounts and agreed with the trial court that the complainant was a credible and reliable witness. When assessing her evidence, the trial court noted her emotional response during cross-examination, when she said, “I was not taught to lie. I was taught to respect.”
Judge Van Zyl said there was no reason to interfere with those findings on credibility, describing the complainant’s story as logical, consistent, and backed up by other evidence.
Accomplice liability confirmed
A key issue on appeal was whether Taaibosch could be convicted of rape even though she did not physically take part in the assault. The High Court said South African criminal law allows for accomplice liability when someone intentionally helps or encourages a crime.
Judge Van Zyl found that Taaibosch’s words just before leaving the house revealed her intention. The judgment says “the only reasonable inference is that it was to rape the complainant” before killing her, making Taaibosch criminally liable for intentionally helping the offence to happen. The court therefore dismissed the appeal against her conviction.
Life sentence reduced
The judges reached a different conclusion on her sentence. Although rape involving more than one perpetrator usually carries a minimum sentence of life in prison, the court found that Taaibosch’s level of involvement justified a lighter sentence.
The judgment accepted that she was not physically present during the rapes and did not personally injure the complainant. At the same time, it said the betrayal of trust between landlord and tenant, and the xenophobic motive behind the attack, were serious aggravating factors.
Judge Van Zyl concluded that “a sentence of 12 years imprisonment” was fair and proportionate. The sentence was backdated to 24 June 2016.
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