Free State police arrest rape suspect after five years on the run

A Bloemfontein rape suspect was finally caught on 4 September after evading police since allegedly attacking a woman in 2021. Free State police have warned criminals that the “long arm of the law” will always find them after a rape suspect who has been on the run since 2021 was finally arrested. The province’s Operation Shanela II Provincial Tracking team made a breakthrough in an October 2021 rape case on 4 September 2026, when officers arrested Tseko Moses Khumalo at his hiding place. Police find 2021 rape suspect after five years Khumalo has been running and hiding from police since 2021, when he allegedly sexually assaulted a 30-year-old victim. On Sunday, 10 October 2021, the woman was walking along Meadows Road in Bloemfontein after leaving a tavern in the early hours of the morning. Khumalo allegedly ambushed her, threatened her with a sword and dragged her to a nearby RDP house. “The victim was then allegedly raped more than once and was only allowed to leave at the break of dawn,” Saps spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Thabo Covane said. Covane said following the incident, police opened a case docket of rape at Bloemspruit Police Station, and the officers started their hunt for the suspect. Police subsequently issued an arrest warrant on 2 June 2026. Tip-off about Khumalo’s hiding place Five years after the alleged rape, on 4 September 2026, the Provincial Tracking team arrested Khumalo after repeatedly visiting his residential address in Bergman Square. Officers had received a tip-off that he was hiding in W-Section, Botshabelo. The suspect was arrested and detained at the Bloemspruit Police Station. Khumalo appeared briefly in the Bloemfontein Magistrate Court on Monday, 7 September 2026, and will return on Monday, 14 September 2026. “The Free State Operation Shanela II Provincial Tracking team continues to prove that there is no hiding place for criminals; you can run, but the long arm of the law will always find you, and justice will prevail,” Covane said. “This is, by admission, how Tseko Moses Khumalo reacted when the team caught him in his hiding place.”