The Pretoria High Court has handed hefty sentences to four men who strangled and killed their friend and his mother during a robbery in 2019.
The convicts – Alex Hlumela Mashaba, 23, Silence Magata Thanysha, 25, and 26-year-old Koketso Molobi – were found guilty on two counts of murder and robbery with aggravating circumstances and were each sentenced to two life sentences plus 15 years.
Their accomplice, Lethabo Gift Ntsoane, 20, was sentenced to 25 years for each of the two counts of murder and 15 years for robbery with aggravating circumstances. The court ordered that his sentences run concurrently.
National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Lumka Mahanjana said: “The National Prosecuting Authority welcomes the sentences handed down by the Pretoria High Court for two life terms and 15 years imprisonment each for two counts of murder and robbery with aggravating circumstances.”
According to Mahanjana, the group was convicted for the murders of their friend Rorisang Given Matsene and his mother Kgomotso Dorah Matsene. Mahanjana said Ntsoane hatched a plan to rob the Matsene household and presented the plan to his friends.
“On 23 July 2019, when Rorisang came back from school the four came, strangled him, covered his head with plastic, tied it with a cable tie and put him in a bath tab full of water. They then waited for his mother to come back home and did the same to her. They took her Renault Cleo, plasma TV, sound system, laptop, and cellphones
“A witness testified that they sold the electronic appliances for R3 000 and the car for R10 000 which they shared among themselves.”
Mahanjana said the bodies of the mother and son were discovered on July 26 2019 by Kgomotso’s daughter who had been struggling to reach her mother for days as she was in university.
“Upon her arrival, she found both her mother and brother dead. The four were arrested on August 4 and 5 2019, and have been in custody since, besides Ntsoane. In court, the four pleaded not guilty to the charges.
“In aggravation the state prosecutor, advocate Robert Molokoane told the court to impose a sentence of life imprisonment, saying the four showed no remorse for their actions, especially because they were friends with one of the deceased.
“The judge agreed with the state that Ntsoane showed no remorse for his offence, he even attended the funeral of the people he killed. He [the judge] was not persuaded to deviate from the prescribed minimum sentence for the rest of the three men,” Mahanjana said.
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