Pretoria - The State urged the High Court in Pretoria on Thursday to impose a life sentence on the KwaMhlanga man who killed a Pretoria North mother and her two children.
Prosecutor Handri Creighton said Sipho Masiqa, 36, was not an innocent youngster, but a responsible adult who had committed a horrendous crime.
Acting Judge Bert Bam last month found Masiqa guilty of the July 2010 murders of Thifhelimibilu Mashau, her eight-month-old baby Avheani and four-year-old daughter Adivhao.
He was also convicted of kidnapping and indecently assaulting Mashau, and stealing her car and other goods.
Masiwa's friend Raymond Matshaba, 29, was convicted as an accessory after the fact to the three murders and the robbery. After reading about the murders in a newspaper he dismantled and burnt Mashau's car to destroy fingerprints.
Bam found that Masiqa strangled both children in their Theresa Park home, probably after Mashau had let him into the house.
The baby girl's body was found on her mother's bed with her face covered. Her little sister was found fully dressed, face down in a bath half-filled with water.
The judge found Masiqa had robbed Mashau of her car and other goods, kidnapped her and took her to Ga-Rankuwa where he indecently assaulted her before stabbing her in the chest and strangling her.
Her half-naked body, dressed only in a pink pajama top, was discovered two days later dumped in the veld.
The judge earlier rejected Masiqa's evidence that Mashau, and a man called Peter, had paid him R10,000 in cash to stage a robbery at her house so she could claim insurance money.
He rejected claims Masiqa had made to a policeman that Mashau had strangled her children and then asked him to kill her.
Creighton argued there were no mitigating circumstances to justify a lesser sentence for Masiqa.
She said Matshaba had aided and abetted a murderer and robber and should be sentenced to at least 15 years' imprisonment.
Masiqa's lawyer Katlego Matshego said the court should take into account that her client had two small children of his own.
Matshaba's lawyer Esther Majola argued that her client, the father of three children, deserved a lesser sentence as he had reported the matter to the police and co-operated with them.
The two would be sentenced on February 14. - Sapa