Sibiya, 29, was facing charges of rape of minors between the ages of nine and 13, which he committed between 2011 and 2012.
He was caretaker at Nkosiyethu Primary School which is a boarding school in Nongoma.
Sibiya was a qualified adult education teacher and had previously practiced in this profession, he had been charged with 54 counts of rape.All his life sentences would be served concurrently, which means he would be spending 25 years behind bars.
He was sentenced to 23 life sentences for rape, one for attempted rape, 12 for forcing minors to watch him while he raped other minors, and 15 for the sexual grooming of minors.
During the trial, it emerged that when Sibiya was raping the minors, he would threaten them by telling them that he had a very strong muthi,(Black magic) and if they dared tell on him, they would instantly be struck by lightning and die.
A mental assessment revealed that Sibiya suffered from paraphilia (the experience of intense sexual arousal to atypical objects, situations, or individuals), and was a psychopath.
When handing down the sentence, Judge van Zyl said when Sibiya qualified for parole, he would have to go through another mental assessment to see if he was ready to be re-integrated into the society.
The court found Sibiya’s victims trusted and looked up to him as a person who would reprimand them when they were wrong, and reward them with sweets when they had been well behaved.
The boys are said to have reported Sibiya while he was away, but no one would believe them until a parent came with his son, who had been visiting home, to report a case of rape at the school, and then police were contacted.
Prosecutor Siyabonga Ngcobo had previously asked the court to hand down a severe sentence on Sibiya as he had committed the acts on young, defenceless children and did not seem like he would be rehabilitated in jail.
KZN police commissioner, Lieutenant-General Mmamonnye Ngobeni, applauded the sentence and praised the Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences unit for their work in gathering enough evidence to put Sibiya behind bars for a long time.
“I applaud all those young boys who were brave to come forward about the abuse,” Ngobeni said.
