Mpumalanga High Court sentences sex worker’s murderer
Jacques Jacobus Alwyn Botha claimed the sex worker he picked up in Belfast had been drunk and had irritated him by making a ruckus, so he strangled her.
The man who killed a sex worker, identified as Zodwa Angelina Sibiya (39) of Emthonjheni in Emgwenya, for making too much noise in his house has been sentenced to an effective 20 years in prison.
The Mpumalanga Division of the High Court sitting in Breyten near Ermelo on Thursday, February 13, sentenced Jacques Jacobus Alwyn Botha (33) to 18 years for murder and seven years for defeating the ends of justice.
The court ordered that five years on his sentence for obstruction run concurrently with his sentence for murder. Botha was also declared unfit to possess a firearm.
Botha picked Sibiya up from a street in Belfast at around 19:30 on October 18 last year. He took her to his house on the Vogelspruitspoort Farm near the town.
“They were drinking and had sex. Afterwards, they went into the living room and continued drinking. Sibiya is said to have been intoxicated and she started making a ruckus. This irritated Botha who tried to quiet her several times unsuccessfully,” said a provincial police spokesperson, Lieutenant Colonel Jabu Ndubane.
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“Botha is said to have dragged Sibiya to the bedroom. He continued trying to silence her as she was yelling uncontrollably. He also tried to get her to sleep, but Sibiya just continued kept yelling.”
It was then that Botha strangled Sibiya with his bare hands as well as her underwear until she passed out.
Upon realising Sibiya was dead, Botha wrapped her body in a carpet and dumped her inside a hole not far from his house. He then filled it with stones to further conceal the body.
“Botha was later consumed by guilt. He handed himself over to the Belfast police and relayed the story of what he did,” said Ndubane.
Sibiya’s body was subsequently retrieved from the hole where Botha buried her, and he was charged accordingly.
