Pretoria - The family of the murdered mother and her two children who were shot dead in their beds by Joseph Selala, the former Siyabuswa traffic chief, said they were happy that he had been convicted of the three murders.
It has been a difficult time for them, they said, and they will only further comment on Thursday once Selala had been sentenced.
Judge Bert Bam sitting in the high court in Pretoria, said all fingers pointed to Selala as being the family killer, despite him denying any involvement in the murders.
Selala did not appear shocked at the verdict, but avoided eye contact with the family of the victim when he made his way down to the holding cells.
Vicky Masemola, who was his common law wife and mother of his two children, was shot dead in her bed in the early hours of December 6, 2013. She had been staying with her mother at the time and Selala had gone there to visit her.
Her son this week testified he had opened the gate to the premises for Selala, whom he regarded as his father. He went back to bed and then heard three gunshots, but he thought the sound had come from outside the house, not the adjacent room. Only later, after he touched his mother and she did not respond, did he realise she was dead.
Siblings Kgomotso, 12, and Tlakale Masemola, 8, were discovered on a bed in their father’s home nearby. Both also died of bullet wounds. Empty cartridges were found on the beds at both crime scenes. The bullets were fired from the same gun.
Selala did not report his gun missing, though it disappeared mysteriously after the tragedy, with Selala saying he had left it in a taxi.
Selala, who did not take the stand, through his advocate denied that he wrote a suicide letter found in his bedroom he had asked a family member to retrieve, and said it was not his handwriting. In this letter he referred to Masemola as a b**ch who had ruined his life. But he expressed his love for his children.
Judge Bam said there was overwhelming evidence that he had killed his daughters who he had fetched from their grandmother’s house. He was the last person to see Masemola alive, and he had confessed to a family member on the phone that he killed them.
Selala left afterwards for Limpopo. Judge Bam said the inference was inescapable that he had fled.
When Selala had a chance to explain to court what happened to the two children who were in his care when they were killed, or to their mother, he elected not to do so.