Durban - The Pretoria North Regional Court sentenced a 58-year-old man from Soshanguve in Pretoria, Balise Phineas Mahlangu, to twenty years imprisonment for the murder of his 16-year-old son.
According to the Directorate of Public Prosecution, Magistrate Elizabeth Nkhangweni Denge convicted Mahlangu of the murder of his son, Nkosikhona Mahlangu, on the 13 April 2021.
Mahlangu killed his son in January 2020 at his home where they stayed together after his wife Nkosikhona’s mother, Leisie Lettie Mahlangu, and their 15-year-old daughter, Tumi Mahlangu, left him due to domestic violence the wife was experiencing at home, Lumka Mahanjana, NPA Regional spokesperson said.
In the middle of the night on the 28 January 2020 while Nkosikhona and Mahlangu were watching television, Mahlangu strangled his son to death.
When he realised that the son was dead, he poured paraffin over the house, set it alight and tried to commit suicide by hanging himself.
Mahanjana said that before he killed his son, he called his brother, Lickion Mahlangu, and told him he was not coping since his wife had left him. The bother called Mahlangu’s nephews who stayed close by to go check on him, upon their arrival, they saw a smoke coming from the house.
They managed to save Mahlangu but when they went back for Nkosikhona, they found him already dead.
Mahlangu was taken to hospital and later arrested.
Mahlangu pleaded guilty to murder, however, the court found that Mahlangu did so because of overwhelming evidence against him.
The magistrate said she agreed with the argument made by the Prosecutor Jonker Marie that this was a case of domestic violence and that Mahlangu killed his son to spite his estranged wife and cause her pain because she wanted to divorce him.
Marie added that Nkosikhona died a painful death in the hands of the father who was supposed to love and protect him.
IOL