Johannesburg - “For everything you ever did to our family, you deserve this. You are an animal. I curse you, Thapelo! How could you kill people like that? Your daughters will suffer for your sins. Go to hell!”
Thandeka Dlamini’s voice reverberated through the courtroom at Palm Ridge as she confronted the serial murderer and rapist Thapelo Motseki, who had violated and dumped the body of Lihle, her 16-year-old sister.
On Tuesday, Judge Mmonoa Teffo sentenced Motseki to four terms of life imprisonment and an extra 50 years behind bars for his string of murders, where he would kidnap his victims, rape and choke them to death.
Lihle Dlamini and Emerencia Kgakatsi were his teenage neighbours in Dobsonville, Soweto, while Lungile Kubheka was the teenage sister of his good friend. Cynthia Setuke was a colleague at the mine where he worked.
Judge Teffo was damning in her judgment: “All of these victims were the most vulnerable people of our society. You invaded the victims’ privacy. You murdered their self-respect, their feelings of mental and physical security.”
As Judge Teffo detailed the list of extensive injuries to Motseki’s victims, Gladys Dlamini, Lihle’s tearful mother, left the courtroom.
But even after the light had left his victims’ eyes, it was their families who bore the brunt of his heinous actions, according to the judge.
“They cannot live with the trauma of knowing their family members died the way they did,” said Judge Teffo.
Gladys Dlamini had to be hospitalised for months after her daughter’s death in 2014, while Lungile’s mother fell ill and died nine months after the death of her daughter.
The siblings of the victims had also struggled to come to terms with their sisters’ deaths, with some struggling to cope with school and work.
But as Motseki listened - or appeared to listen - to Judge Teffo’s words, he appeared to ignore them, even as she told him that he had not once exhibited any signs of remorse. He had blamed his lawyer for his conviction, refusing to admit to the crimes or take any responsibility.
For Judge Teffo, this meant Motseki had not started on the path of contrition, and thus was unlikely to be rehabilitated. As the judge finished her sentencing, the large gathering of Snake Park, Dobsonville, residents who attended proceedings hugged each other, glad that Motseki would be imprisoned for the rest of his life.
It was as Motseki continued to deny his crimes to the media that Thandeka berated him.
But Motseki once again ignored her words and descended the stairs to the cells.
The Star