The Pretoria High Court sentenced two women, Lebogang Tshabalala (29) and Everjoy Sibanda (22), as well as three males, Lucky Vincent Motholo (25), Kagiso Alfread Leleme Mathlabe (24) and Kamogelo Modise (23). Tshabalala, Motholo, Mathlabe and Modise, were sentenced to 15 years of direct imprisonment each, for robbery with aggravating circumstances, the four were also sentenced to 3 years each for kidnapping.
Over and above that, Mathlabe and Modise were sentenced to 15 years imprisonment for the murder of a 38-year-old man.
However, Sibanda was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment, of which 5 years were suspended for robbery with aggravating circumstances and 3 years wholly suspended for kidnapping.
The Judge ordered that the sentences should run concurrently, and they be declared unfit to possess a firearm.
On 27 October 2020, in the evening, the two women Tshabalala and Sibanda, were standing at Bokfontein near a Sasol garage Danman, pretending to be prostitutes soliciting potential clients, while the three men were in the nearby bushes.
When the deceased was dropped off by a car from work next to where the two were standing, he asked them what they were doing, and they told him that they were prostitutes.
The deceased then told them to wait, while he went to withdraw money from the Sasol garage. After he withdrew R900 and bought a few groceries he returned to the two women for their services, and they went to the bushes where they met with the three men.
They tied his hands, assaulted him, and requested his PIN code.
The two women then went back to the garage to withdraw money, but the attempts failed because the deceased gave them the wrong pin.
The following day after the mother of the deceased could not get hold of him, she opened a missing persons case at the police station.
After investigations by the SAPS, a partially decomposed body of the deceased was found in the bushes.
The security guards at the Sasol garage alerted the police of the Avanza car they saw on the night of the incident, after investigations, four were arrested on 19 December 2020, however, Modise was arrested in February 2022.
In court, only Motholo pleaded guilty. However, the two women asked the court to consider the fact that they were pregnant when imposing a sentence, however, Prosecutor Advocate Salome Scheepers told the court that the Correctional Services Act does have provisions for pregnant women and has facilities to cater for such.
She then asked the court not to deviate from the prescribed minimum sentence.
When handing down the sentence the judge said murder is a serious offence, no amount of sentence will bring back the life of the deceased.
Therefore, she found no substantial and compelling circumstances to deviate from imprisonment.
The Director of Public Prosecutions, Advocate Sibongile Mzinyathi welcomes the sentence and applauds the work of the investigation office Sgt Leonard Mapataka
