Frank Maponya

Frank Maponya

A Limpopo man got was he deserved - he was sentenced to three life sentences for the murder of his three children.

The man was sentenced by the Polokwane high court on Tuesday to an extra 20 years for culpable homicide of two grannies after he beat them with an iron bar.

Fulton Lefading, 30, had run amok and killed his three children after accusing their mother of having an affair.

The incident happened last year in Essaurinca in the Maleboho area, outside Polokwane.

Lefading who works as a security guard in Johannesburg had visited his girlfriend in the area.

But his girlfriend refused to talk to him.

He then took the children - Matome, 6, Moraka, 4, and Ngwako, 2, to a nearby bush - where he strangled them and later hanged their bodies from a tree.

Thereafter, Lefading went back to his girlfriend's home and started assaulting her.

She escaped after two grannies who are related to her intervened.

But Lefading did not stop there.

He then assaulted the old ladies, Mahlodi Motlapema, 70, and Mamoraka Motlapema, 65, with an iron bar.

Mahlodi and Mamoraka later died in hospital because of the injuries sustained during the attack.

Handing down the sentence Judge Webster said he was sentencing Lefading to three life sentences for the murder of the three children and two 10-year sentences for culpable homicide after the death of the two elderly women.

Lefading was also sentenced to three years for assaulting his girlfriend.

Webster ruled that the sentences will run concurrently with the life imprisonment sentences.

Police commissioner Calvin Sengani said the sentences would serve as a deterrent to would-be murderers.