A jilted Gauteng man has been sentenced to life imprisonment for the brutal murder of his girlfriend and lawyer Olive Motsomi.
Kabelo Rasepae was found guilty by the Johannesburg High Court on Tuesday for fatally butchering Motsomi in a hair-raising gender-based violence (GBV) incident that occurred at her Joburg home in January 2020.
National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) South Gauteng spokesperson Phindi Mjonondwane said Rasepae, who was in a 10-year relationship with Motsomi, stabbed her several times at her place of residence.
He then took her to Robinson Hospital in Randfontein where he told the unsuspecting staff that they were victims of a house robbery. He left Motsomi under the care of the hospital alleging that he was rushing back home to attend to their children who were home alone.
Motsomi succumbed to the stabbing wounds later that day.
Rasepae was arrested and charged with murder on January 23 2020. At the time of his arrest in Rustenburg, North West he was in possession of Motsomi’s vehicle.
“The case was then assigned to Warrant Officer Coenrad who meticulously investigated it after identifying Rasepae as the first suspect. This after he received information from Motsomi’s family that the couple did not have any children as he had claimed, and that the accused called the brother of the deceased on Christmas Day 2019 informing him that the deceased had ended their relationship and was seeing someone else,” said Mjonondwane.
In aggravation of sentence, senior state advocate Patric Mkhari submitted a victim impact statement by the probation officer Thato Modise detailing that Motsomi’s mother has been left traumatised by her daughter’s murder. The report also showed that the mother had become dependent on anti-depressants because she could not accept the brutality meted out at her daughter.
Mkhari also argued that the public relied on the courts to root out incidents of GBV by removing perpetrators from society, noting that Motsomi was a legal practitioner who believed in the criminal justice system and that justice should prevail.
Acting judge Baloyi remarked that Rasepae brutally killed Motsomi in the sanctity of her home and failed to present substantial and compelling circumstances to warrant a deviation from the minimum prescribed sentence of life imprisonment.
The director of public prosecutions in the Gauteng local division, advocate Andrew Chauke, welcomed the sentence.
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