Kind mom’s murderers jailed for 25 years
TWO men who attacked and killed a woman who had hired them to fit tiles in her home have each been sentenced to 25 years in jail.
Tshepiso Aphane, 32, and Tsosoloso Marule, 29, killed Seapei Rosina Mosima at her home in Unit D in Temba, Pretoria, in August 2011.
They were sentenced to 25 years imprisonment for her murder and 10 years for robbery with aggravating circumstances in the Mahikeng High Court sitting in the Moretele Magistrate’s Court yesterday. The sentences will run concurrently.
Mosima was assaulted and then strangled. After the murder, the two left the house and returned with a bakkie.
They loaded Mosima’s household goods including a lounge suite, a foot massage sponge, cellphones, a TV set and microwave.
Judge Ronald Hendricks said the behaviour of the two was “disgraceful”. “You bit the hand that fed you. She was good to you. You should have at least appreciated what she did for you. The goodness of the deceased was exploited and ultimately led to her death,” he said.
Hendricks said the court was inundated with cases where people were killed for their belongings.
He said the two deprived Mosima’s daughters Olebogeng Mosima and Elizabeth Mohalanyane, whom she was in the process of adopting, of a mother. However, Hendricks said he found substantial and compelling circumstances to deviate from the maximum sentence.
“You are first offenders. Accused 1 [Aphane] pleaded guilty, which is a sign of remorse and he cooperated with police. You are 32 and 29. The possibility is that you will be rehabilitated,” he said.
Mohalanyane, 21, who had lost her mother in March that year, said she was relieved the case was concluded. “I was so heartbroken and devastated. She did everything that my mother used to do for me. She loved me. I was in Grade 10 at the time and it was difficult,” she said.
Olebogeng said she was satisfied.