Delta Mokoena (43) president of Bushbuckridge Residential Association (BRA) has been sentenced to five years imprisonment after he failed to appeal for two previous convictions.

Mokoena was released on R10 000 bail on February 14, 2014 after lodging a Notice of application for release from custody pending determination of appeal by the circuit of the high court.

He was given 14 days to appeal but he failed to do so and a warrant of arrest was issued.

On Thursday Mokoena was arrested and appeared in Acornhoek Magistrate Court where he was sentenced to five years direct imprisonment,’ said Acornhoek police spokesperson Lieutenant Mpho Nonyane.

Mokoena has been accused of a string of vigilante crimes and he was sentenced to two years imprisonment for intimidation and three years for accusing for accusing someone of practising witchcraft and setting his house alight.

The sentences were handed down by the Acornhoek Magistrates’ Court in 2013.

He was sentenced to three years in prison for unlawfully evicting Aaron Zitha (51) and two years for pointing someone as a witch. Mokoena and a mob torched 68-year-old Ranson Mashile’s in August 2012 after accusing him of bewitching his close friend and killing him.

Mokoena has been sleeping in the Acornhoek police station since August 19 2012 until Mokoena was sentenced to two years imprisonment.

According to the court Mokoena instructed Zitha to leave his house in Ga-Boelang village after claiming that his 18-year-old son was a thief. Mokoena threatened to tell the community to set him and his house alight if he did not leave.

Zitha and his family eventually left the area and moved to Timabavati Village a few kilometres away.