In 1973, Mazingane was born in Kroonstad Prison to his mother, who was serving a five-year sentence for prostitution and distributing cannabis.
[3] Between March 1995 and April 1998, Mazingane robbed, raped, and murdered at least 14 women and girls around the Gauteng province.
On that day, he would make a detour into a secluded veld, pull his victim out of the minibus and demand that she lie down on her stomach.
[3][4] In the midst of his main killing spree, Mazingane began kidnapping, raping, maiming, and murdering motorists along highways in the Nasrec area.
On a Sunday afternoon in June 1996, a young married couple drove over sharp rocks in their bakkie, causing them to pull over under a bridge.
Mazingane drove to a veld, dragged the couple out of the vehicle, instructed the husband to sit on his own knees, and raped the man's wife as their baby loudly cried.
They told detectives that they saw a second man watching them from a distance, leading investigators to question if the attacker had an accomplice.
The DNA from the perpetrator's semen was tested, and it immediately matched to the Nasrec serial killer.
[3] On 24 July 1997, Gert Aspeling, 66, and his handicapped wife, Elise, then 62, were driving on the N12 highway on the outskirts of Johannesburg.
Gert, unfazed, got back inside his vehicle, only for Mazingane to shoot him several times, killing him.
When he reached a corn field, he stopped the car, tore off seat covers, and threw them onto the ground.
[5] At the time of the murders, South Africa did not have an organised computerised system for different police departments to share cases with each other.
So, although multiple police stations in the Johannesburg area had been investigating similar murders, they were not linked until the media began reporting on them.
Their profile stated that the killer was a man in late twenties to early thirties, since most of his victims were that age; that he was attractive, charismatic, and sociable—the type of personality that would appeal to middle-class women; and that he was intelligent and manipulative.
During the press conference, the National Commissioner of SAPS also warned women to be cautious, to take notice of other passengers in taxis and make sure they were not the only passenger in a taxi, to walk in groups instead of alone, to make their loved-ones aware of their movements—especially when they would arrive home, and to report any odd behavior to the Brixton Murder and Robbery Unit.
[6] An early suspect in the case was Samuel Bongani Mfeka, the Kranskop serial killer.
A few days later, constables called Byleveld at around two in the morning because Mazingane had defecated in his food and was throwing it at people.
In the days leading up to the incident, Mazingane had incessantly asked to see the detective, but Byleveld always replied, "I'll talk to you when I feel like it.