A convicted killer who brutally raped his neighbour before setting her alight in a necklace-style killing has been jailed for just three years.
The devastated family of victim Nobantu Chebindevu, 30, Thursday night vowed to fight the lenient sentence handed down to school caretaker Bhekimuzi Antoni, 40.
The mom of five died in excruciating agony after her killer raped her and beat her head and body with a brick last year.
The psycho – who had previously stalked Nobantu – then placed a tyre around her and set her alight right outside her Langa home.
Antoni was this week convicted of the horrific murder at the Bellville Regional Court.
But her family are furious he was jailed for just three years.
“I just couldn’t believe when the court passed the sentence,” Nobantu’s grief-stricken mother Nomabhaca Chebindevu tells the Daily Voice .
“We are talking of a gruesome murder here, but this case was not treated as such.
“I have since been attending a psychiatrist after the murder.
“And now this whole thing makes it worse.”
Nomabhaca broke down in tears as she told how she hears her daughter’s screams every night.
“My daughter was brutally killed and set alight in front of her home,” she says.
“I still hear her voice screaming in pain.
“How could such a murderer get a lenient sentence?
“What message does our justice system send to the public about gruesome murderers?”
Nomabhaca, 70, was left reeling when Antoni’s sentence was read out in court.
And she says the verdict has brought more grief and suffering to her family.
“We are taking the matter up to the Provincial Director of National Public Prosecutions,” she says.
“This has just opened up all our old wounds.”
Langa community worker Eunice Phathiwe says the entire community is angry with the sentence.
“The incident shocked the entire neighbourhood,” she says.
“It was very sickening to see a woman die like this at the hands of a man.
“The courts are supposed to treat such matters seriously.
“ We don’t encourage mob justice, but this is what people sometimes resort to.
“He deserved a heavy sentence – not just three years.”
The investigating officer, who only identified himself as Detective Reuters, refused to comment directly Thursday night, saying it’s in the court’s hands. - Daily Voice