Durban - The crowd in the Durban High Court gallery applauded when oThongathi serial killer, Sphiwe Khoza, was sentenced to an effective life term of imprisonment.
Judge Piet Koen on Thursday found that there were no substantial and compelling circumstances for the court to deviate from the minimum prescribed sentence for all the charges Khoza faced. On Wednesday he was convicted of murder, rape and robbery with aggravating circumstances.
Khoza was sentenced to life for each of the murders and rape and 15 years for each of the three counts of robberies with aggravating circumstances and four years for the counts of theft.
In handing down sentence, Koen said Cornelia Ndlovu, Philisiwe Hlatswayo and Bongiwe Majozi were killed in a “vicious, gruesome, cruel and callous manner”.
Khoza, 38, had lured the three women, separately, to oThongathi via social media, killed them, raped Ndlovu and stole their cellphones.
Koen found that the State had proven Khoza’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt and had referred to cellphone records that had linked him to the scene of the crimes.
On May 31, 2013, Khoza lured Ndlovu, 44, to the Kwatiba area in oThongathi, robbed her of her cellphone, assaulted and raped her, strangled her with a belt and bound her hands and neck. He then covered her body with branches.
His second victim, Hlatswayo, a school teacher, was lured to a sugar cane plantation in the Amazinyama area in oThongathi on June 7, 2013 where she was robbed of her cellphone and FNB bank card.
Khoza had used her bank card to withdraw money on four separate occasions from the FNB ATM in oThongathi and was captured on CCTV footage. Hlatswayo’s hands and neck were also bound and her body was partially charred after Khoza had set it alight.
Majozi, of Northdale, Pietermaritzburg, was lured to Harry’s Farm in Hambanathi, oThongathi on June 22, 2013. The cause of Majozi’s death could not be ascertained as her body was burnt.
During arguments, the defence said it had not been proved that the murders were premeditated.
It was also argued that the recording of the “frenzy of calls” made between Khoza and the three women were not before the court and it could not be proven that Khoza lured them to oThongathi.
State advocate Vera Alamchand called for the maximum sentence of life to be imposed for the murders and rape and for the maximum sentence of 15 years for the robberies with aggravating circumstances.
Alamchand argued the women were killed in a cold-blooded and callous manner.
Their hands and necks were bound and they were overpowered and could not resist. She asked the court to find that the murders were premeditated because the planning could have happened at any time.
In sentencing Khoza, Koen agreed with the State that the murders were premeditated.
“They died cruel and excruciating deaths. Unfortunately, these kinds of offences are often on our criminal court rolls. Society is sick and tired of this cruelty that accompanies robberies and house break-ins.”
Koen said the life sentences and other sentences would run concurrently, meaning Khoza’s effective sentence was life in prison.
Daily News