Mediamec Nkosingiphile Malinga and Samukelo Tshabalala will each serve an effective 20-year prison term for killing a 68-year-old man and attempting to murder his wife during a farm robbery in Grootvlei, Mpumalanga.
The Mpumalanga High Court, sitting in Middelburg, sentenced the pair on 15 October after they entered into a plea and sentence agreement under Section 105A of the Criminal Procedure Act.
Police spokesperson Colonel Mavela Masondo said officers were alerted to the attack at about 9.45am on 30 July 2023. They arrived to find the man dead with stab wounds. His 65-year-old wife suffered serious head injuries and was taken for medical treatment.
The attackers stole the couple’s vehicle, firearms, ammunition and electrical appliances.
Police issued an alert for the suspects. The stolen vehicle was subsequently found overturned near Villiers, where local officers arrested four men: Malinga, Tshabalala, Siyabonga Ziqubu and Kgahliso Motaung.
Malinga and Tshabalala each received a 25-year sentence for murder, with five years suspended for five years on condition that they are not convicted of murder during that period.
Each also received 25 years for attempted murder, with five years suspended for five years subject to the same condition relating to an attempted murder conviction.
For the remaining offences, each man was sentenced to two years on each of two counts under the Older Persons Act, 15 years for robbery with aggravating circumstances, and five years on each of three firearms-related counts.
The court directed that all sentences run concurrently with the murder sentence, resulting in an effective prison term of 20 years each.
Ziqubu and Motaung’s cases were separated from those of the sentenced men. Their trial is scheduled for 6 to 17 November 2028 in the Delmas High Court.
Mpumalanga police commissioner Lieutenant General Apaphia Modise welcomed the outcome, saying it demonstrated that those who attack farming communities and vulnerable older people would be held accountable.
She praised the investigators, prosecutors and judiciary, including the investigating officer from the Gert Sibande District Murder and Robbery Unit, for their work in securing the convictions.
