Orange Farm man who killed girlfriend after row gets 20 years
Image: 123RF/Allan Swart
A 25-year-old who man killed his girlfriend after an argument in Orange Farm in February 2020 has been sentenced to 20 years in jail.
The Pretoria high court, sitting in Palm Ridge, sentenced Siyabonga Lebohang Hlophe Mabe for the murder of the 36-year-old woman.
Mabe was in a relationship with the deceased at the time. On the evening of February 29 2020, while the girlfriend and Mabe were at a tavern in Orange Farm, an argument broke out between them and Mabe assaulted and dragged his girlfriend to his shack.
The next morning, the woman was found badly injured in an open veld near Mabe’s home. She died in hospital on the same day from blunt force trauma to the brain, said National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson Lumka Mahanjana.
Mabe was arrested on April 12 last year and has been in custody since, after the NPA successfully opposed bail.
Mabe pleaded not guilty to the charge of murder and denied ever knowing the deceased.
An aunt of the deceased testified that she was five months pregnant at the time of death. The aunt said her death had affected the family as she left behind five children, aged two to 11.
The aunt said the siblings had to be separated and three children now live with their unemployed grandmother in Mpumalanga, while the others are staying with their fathers.
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