Four get life for killing ‘friend’ and his mother in The Orchards home invasion

Four men received six life terms and 70 years imprisonment collectively on Monday for murdering their “friend”, Rorisong Given Matsene, and his mother, Kgomotso Dorah, during a home invasion at their The Orchards home in 2019.

The Pretoria High Court sentenced Alex Hlumela Mashaba (23), Silence Magata Thanysha (25) and Koketso Malobi (26) to two life terms and 15 years imprisonment each for two counts of murder and robbery with aggravating circumstances.

Lethabo Gift Ntsoane (20), who orchestrated the robbery, was sentenced to 25 years each for two counts of murder and 15 years for robbery with aggravating circumstances.

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The judge ordered that the sentences should run concurrently; therefore, his effective sentence is 25 years imprisonment.

NPA spokesperson Lumka Mahanjana said Rorisang was friends with two of the convicted killers, Mashaba and Ntsoane.

Ntsoane derived a plan to rob his friend’s house and approached the other three to help him.

When Rorisong came home from school on July 23, 2019, the four men strangled him, covered his head with a plastic bag, tied it with a cable tie and put him in a bath tab full of water.

They then waited for his mother to come back home and did the same to her.

They took her car (a Renault Cleo), a plasma TV, a sound system, a laptop and several cellphones.

“A witness testified that they sold the electronic appliances for R3 000 and the car for R10 000 and shared the money.

“The bodies of the deceased were discovered three days later on July 26, 2019, by Kgothatso Matsene, the deceased’s daughter, who was at university at the time of the incident.”

Kgothatso told the court she could not reach her mother on the phone for a couple of days and decided to go home. Upon her arrival, she found both her mother and brother dead.

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The four were arrested on August 4 and 5, 2019, and have been in custody since.

In court, the men pleaded not guilty to the charges brought against them.

Kgothatso said that the past three years had been excruciatingly painful as she lost her family who always stood up for her.

She said how she could not cope with the trauma and grief.

As her mental health continued to deteriorate by 2021, she was admitted to a psychiatric facility and diagnosed with major depressive disorder (MDD).

Kgothatso said she was in “a much better place now” and could handle being in court and facing the accused.

State prosecutor Adv. Robert Molokoane told the court to impose a sentence of life imprisonment, as the four showed no remorse for their actions, especially because they were friends with one of the deceased.

The judge agreed with the state that Ntsoane showed no remorse for his offence as he had even attended a funeral of the people he killed.

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