MBOMBELA – A man was sentenced to life imprisonment for petrol bombing his girlfriend’s house, killing her five-year-old daughter in the process, just because the mother had said no to sex.
Judge Francis Legodi sentenced Mandla Godfrey Khoza (35) of Mkhulu in the Gauteng Circuit of the High Court on Thursday, to 25 years’ imprisonment for murder, eight years for attempted murder and seven for arson.
He had pleaded guilty to the charges, but in his defence, said he didn’t know better because he hadn’t received an education. Legodi said there were many people in society who did not have an education who were law-abiding citizens, so he had no excuse for committing these offences. “This was a well-executed plan as he purchased the ingredients for making a petrol bomb.”
Khoza was out on parole after serving a prison sentence for attempted murder of a former girlfriend, when he committed this later crime.
He had slept at his girlfriend, Ms Busisiwe Fikile Nkosi’s house and wanted to make love to her the following morning. When she refused, he became angry and told her “he would sort her out”.
He returned to her house on September 10, 2012 and went to her room where he knew she slept with her five-year-old daughter, Prominent Thembekile Mkhonto.
Nkosi had testified in court how she woke up at about 01:00 and realised the house was ablaze. “My daughter was on fire, I grabbed her and ran out of the room. I put the flames out with my hands and burnt them in the process.” She said she and her daughter were taken to hospital where her daughter later died from her injuries.
When defence advocate Mr Palton Mnisi questioned her about forgiving Khoza, she bluntly refused, stating that he had taken her life, which was her child. “It is because he hurt me so much, that I’ve lost everything – my child.”
Legodi said, “It is almost as if he learnt nothing in prison. Secondly, the accused had no good cause to act in that manner on the date in question. He is a danger to society.
The slightest provocation drove him to commit these serious offences as if the complainant was not entitled to say no to sex. The accused was raised by women, yet he clearly has no respect for them.”
