Life sentences for two lives
The family of the slain elderly couple who was gunned down in broad daylight in a Soshanguve street while delivering stock to a spaza shop, will now start picking up the pieces of their lives after the murderers of their parents have been sentenced to life behind bars.
Three young Winterveldt men have been given two life sentences each for killing an elderly couple in a busy Soshanguve street in 2011 for R3.50 and a toy gun.
The High Court in Pretoria also jailed each for 15 years for robbery and another eight years for possessing a firearm and ammunition.
Judge Lettie Malopa rejected an argument that the men should not be punished too harshly because of their relatively young ages, saying this was in fact an aggravating factor in a “heinous and despicable crime”.
Nowadays, it is the youth who hold the country at ransom and who are terrorising communities, she said.
The sentences of Victor Simango, 31, Solomon Selekane, 25, and the 28-year old Collen Molapo would run concurrently, the judge ordered.
They were found guilty of murdering Christiaan Jooste and his wife Catherina and robbing them while the couple, both in their 60s, were, according to the judge, trying to earn an honest living. They were delivering stock to a spaza shop when they were murdered in the street as witnesses looked on.
Belinda Jooste, daughter of the deceased, said the family was pleased and relieved that the ordeal, that had completely turned their lives upside down, was now finally over.
“We will now try to put the pieces of our lives back together,” she said after her parents’ murderers were sentenced.
Simango was found guilty of another charge of aggravated robbery for robbing the same couple in a separate incident 16 days before their 17 November murder. He received an additional 15 years for the crime which will also run concurrently with his life sentence.
A fourth accused, Nkomo Mathebula, had his trial separated from that of the three murderers after escaping from police custody earlier this year by allegedly bribing a policeman. Mathebula is still on the run and is currently on the police’s top 10 most wanted criminals in the country.
In sentencing the murderers, Malopa said not a day went by in this country without murder and robbery and that this particular crime had had a devastating effect on the family – who lost both their mother and father on the same day.
“They died in a horrible manner – shot in broad daylight while trying to earn an honest living.”
In convicting the three men earlier, the judge said the various versions given by the accused of what had happened that day could not reasonably or possibly be true. The trio acted with a common purpose to rob and murder the Joostes, who were in Soshanguve delivering sausages to a shop in Block R when they were shot.
Christiaan was hit in the stomach while walking back from the shop while his wife was shot in the chest when she tried to defend herself by spraying her attackers with pepper spray. Both were declared dead on arrival at the hospital.
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Also read: Verdagte betaal polisieman om te ontsnap
Familie woedend oor moordenaar ontsnap
“Come quickly, we’ve been shot”
