Trio to serve life terms for killing artist

THE three men convicted of killing artist Clinton de Menezes have been sentenced to life imprisonment by the Durban High Court.

Handing down sentence yesterday, Judge Esther Steyn said she could find no substantial or compelling reason to deviate from the prescribed minimum of 25 years’ imprisonment for murder for Siyabonga China Khoza, 25, Lungani Tevin Ngidi, 23, and Bongani Makhatini, 28.

Fisto Alimasi, 26, was sentenced to six years’ imprisonment for receiving goods stolen by the trio.

“When you killed (De Menezes), you robbed a wife and a young girl of the most precious thing they have – a husband and a father,” Judge Steyn told the killers.

She also sentenced Khoza, Ngidi and Makhatini to 15 years for robbery with aggravating circumstances, eight years for attempted murder, and 15 years for each of three housebreaking charges. Ngidi was also sentenced to four years for the illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition. The sentences are to run concurrently.

Alimasi, from the Democratic Republic of Congo, was convicted of robbery with aggravating circumstances and housebreaking.

De Menezes was visiting a friend, Simon Malpas, with his wife and daughter on December 31, 2013 when Khoza, Ngidi and Makhatini tried to enter the house. He tried to stop the trio and was shot in the chest.

Eighteen days earlier, the trio had broken into the home of Graham Payne and his wife. Payne was shot in the hip. On December 29, the men had broken into Gail Hamilton’s home.

“There was no need for you to act the way you did, except you were greedy,” Judge Steyn told the men. She told Alimasi his role had been prominent: “You undoubtedly created a market for the goods that were taken from the victims.”

De Menezes’s work was shown in London and New York.