Randy Tango was sentenced to three life sentences for raping and murdering his 11-year-old neighbour Stacha Arendse.

Arendse’s murder sent shockwaves through the community of Tafelsig in Cape Town when her body was found by Tango after she went missing in March.

Tango even assisted in searching for her and was arrested after he pointed out the body where he had dumped it in a dustbin behind the Swartklip Recreation Centre in Tafelsig.

He was well known by her mother‚ Sandy Markgraaff‚ with whom he had been at school.

The Mitchell’s Plain Crisis Forum attended the trial at the Cape Town High Court over the past few weeks in support of Arendse’s family.

Western Cape police spokesperson Captain FC Van Wyk said on Tuesday: “He boldly stated that he had killed Stacha because he was not going to jail for raping her.”

“The little girl went missing on 27 March and Tango had the audacity to even assist with the search for the missing child. All the while he knew that he had strangled her and dumped her lifeless body in a dustbin. He had preyed on Stacha even though he knew her mother‚ Sandy Markgraaff‚ from their school years together‚” he said.

“The outcome of the case is welcomed by the Western Cape SAPS Management as no person who commits such a despicable crime against a child should be allowed back into society‚” said Van Wyk.

DA Western Cape standing committee on community development chairperson Lorraine Botha said 123 children were killed in the province between December 2016 and August 2017.

“I am pleased with this lengthy sentence‚ as it comes just as this year’s 16 Days of Activism of no Violence Against Women and Children concluded. Judge Robert Henney is sending a clear message that our judicial system has no mercy for those who commit barbaric acts against the most vulnerable in our society‚” she said.