Johannesburg - The Pretoria High Court handed a sentence of six life terms and 70 years imprisonment to four friends who murdered their friend and his mother during a house robbery.
Three of the accused, Alex Hlumela Mashaba, 23, Silence Magata Thanysha, 25, and Koketso Malobi, 26, were sentenced to two life terms and 15 years imprisonment each, for two counts of murder, and robbery with aggravating circumstances.
The fourth suspect, Lethabo Gift Ntsoane, 20, was sentenced to 25 years each for two counts of murder and 15 years for robbery, with aggravating circumstances. His effective sentence is 25 years imprisonment, as the sentences were ordered to run concurrently.
Gauteng NPA spokesperson Lumka Mahanjana said the four were convicted of killing Rorisong Given Matsene and his mother Kgomotso Dorah Matsene by strangling them, covering their heads with plastic, tying them with cable ties and putting them in a bathtub full of water on July 23, 2019, in their home.
“Rorisong was friends with two of his killers, Mashaba and Ntsoane. It was put on record that Ntsoane conceived a plan to rob his friend’s house and approached the other three to assist him.
“On July 23 when Rorisang came back from school the four came and murdered him and waited for his mother to come back home and did the same to her.”
The suspects also stole a Renault Cleo belonging to Kgomotso, a plasma TV, sound system, laptop, and cell phones from the home.
“A witness testified that they sold the electronic appliances for R3 000 and the car for R10 000 and shared the money,” said Mahanjana.
The bodies of the deceased were discovered by the daughter of the deceased, three days later on July 26. The daughter was at university at the time of the incident.
“She told the court that because she could not reach her mother on the phone for a couple of days, she decided to go home. Upon her arrival, she found both her mother and brother dead.
“The four were arrested on the 4 and 5 August 2019, and have been in custody since, besides Ntsoane. In court, the four pleaded not guilty to the charges preferred against them.”
State prosecutor advocate Robert Molokoane told the court that it should impose life imprisonment given that the four showed no remorse for their actions, despite that they were friends with one of the deceased.
The judge agreed with the state.
“Ntsoane showed no remorse for his offence, he even attended a funeral of the people he killed. He must count himself lucky because he was 17 years old at the time of the offence, however, the court was not persuaded to deviate from the prescribed minimum sentence for the rest of the three men.
“The NPA welcomes the sentence handed down by the Pretoria High Court to Mashaba, Thanysha, Malobi and Ntsoane,” said Mahanjana.
IOL