Friends Lethabo Gift Ntsoane (20), Alex Hlumela Mashaba (23), Silence Magata Thanysha (25) and Koketso Malobi (26) were all sentenced to six life terms  and seventy years for their evil act. They appeared on Monday at the Pretoria High Court and were charged with  two counts of murder, and robbery with aggravating circumstances. The  four were convicted of killing Rorisong Given Matsene and his mother Kgomotso Dorah Matsene.

FRIENDS STRANGLE MOM AND SON

Rorisong was friends with two of his killers, Mashaba and Ntsoane. It was put on record that Ntsoane, derived a plan to rob his friend's house and approached the other three to assist him. The fatal incident happened on the 23 July 2019, when Rorisang came back from school. It is alleged that while at home the four came, strangled Rorisang, covered his head with plastic, tied it with a cable tie and put him in a bath tab full of water, and waited for his mother to come back home and did the same to her.  

BODIES DISCOVERED THREE DAYS LATER

They took the mother's car, a plasma television, sound system, laptop and cell phones. A witness testified that they sold the electronic appliances for R3000 and the car for R10 000 and shared the money. The NPA's Lumka Mahanjana told Zimoja that the bodies of the deceased were discovered three days after the incident. She said the daughter of the deceased, who was in university, got worried when she could not reach her mother for days. She said the daughter decided to go home and that's when she made the gruesome discovery that continues to haunt her.                                                                                                                                                                            "The four were arrested on the 4 and 5 August 2019, and have been in custody since, besides Ntsoane who was a minor then.  In court, the four pleaded not guilty to the charges preferred against them,"said Mahanjana.

NO SIGNS OF REMORSE

The four are said to have not shown any signs of remorse for their actions especially because the deceased was their friend. "Ntsoane showed no remorse for his offence, he even attended the funeral of the people he killed, he must count himself lucky because he was 17 years old at the time of the offence. They have been sentenced to 25 years each, for the two counts of murder and 15 years for robbery, with aggravating circumstances. The judge ordered that the sentences should run concurrently, therefore, theeffective sentence is 25 years imprisonment,"explained Mahanjana.