Rustenburg - A 34-year-old man was sentenced to life imprisonment for rape and murder of a 14-year-old girl, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) said on Wednesday.
NPA spokesperson in Limpopo, Mashudu Malabi Dzhangi said Tshepo Boshielo was sentenced in the Limpopo High Court in Polokwane.
“Police reports reveal that on 25 December 2015, the victim was walking alone in the street when Boshielo raped and murdered her. Her lifeless body was discovered by a passer-by in someone's yard next to her homestead.
“The accused committed these offences in 2015 and was only arrested in 2019. He was linked by DNA to another two rape cases,” Malabi Dzhangi said.
She said Boshielo also committed a business robbery in Mamelodi and Nebo respectively. He pleaded not guilty on both charges, but he was convicted.
“During sentencing, Adv. George Makhudu pleaded with the court not to deviate from the prescribed minimum sentence as the crimes committed were serious.
“Judge Geriet Muller agreed with the state and also alluded to the need to fight the scourge of gender-based violence and femicide in the country by sentencing the accused to life imprisonment for each count.”
Meanwhile in the North West, provincial NPA spokesperson Henry Mamothame said the case against Mokete Legodi, 47, accused of killing his 2-year-old daughter was postponed to March 30.
“The state has provided Legodi’s attorney with an indictment and the matter is ready for trial,” he said.
Legodi was arrested after the body of his daughter was discovered inside the ceiling of his residential home in Alabama, near Klerksdorp. He is charged with kidnapping and murder of the child.
“It is alleged that on Thursday 13 May 2021, Legodi went to his girlfriend’s home, at Extension 20 in Jouberton, and took their daughter without the consent of the mother who was admitted to the hospital at the time.
“The family members, who were taking care of the child, assumed he would bring her back as he usually did but later, upon inquiry, he denied taking the child. On 14 May 2021, when the mother got discharged from the hospital, she went searching for the baby with the help of family members, but they could not find her.
“She went to Jouberton police station the next day where a case of a missing person was opened.”
Legodi was arrested on May 16 for kidnapping after failing to tell the police of the child’s whereabouts.
It was alleged that on May 17, following a bad smell coming from Legodi’s house, the neighbours investigated and discovered the lifeless body of the child hidden inside the ceiling.
The police were called and a murder charge was added.
IOL