Women don’t trust cops

FOUR DEATHS: MEN GET LONG SENTENCES FOR BRUTALLY KILLING WOMEN

Cases closed for Susan Rohde, Winnie Rust, Karabo Mokoena and Hannah Cornelius.

Femicide, or the murder of a woman by a man, captured national headlines in 2018, with dozens of marches and court cases highlighting the plight of women in the country.

Coinciding with Women’s Day, some of the cases where justice was achieved are highlighted.

Susan was murdered by her husband Jason Rohde at the Spier Hotel in Stellenbosch on July 24, 2016. After killing his wife, Rohde tried to make Susan’s death look like suicide.

Susan’s murder was borne from the “ill-fated discovery” of her husband’s infidelity, followed by months of “harrowing” trauma, the Western Cape High Court in Cape Town said.

Rohde was found guilty of murder and obstruction of justice in November last year.

He is currently in Pollsmoor Prison, awaiting the outcome of his bail application pending an appeal in the Supreme Court of Appeal.

Author Winnie Rust, 77, was brutally murdered by a man she had known for many years.

Nigel Plaatjies and his uncle, Johannes Plaatjies, robbed and killed Rust in her home in Uitsig, Wellington on May 11, 2016.

She had known Nigel since he was a little boy and had paid for his sports activities and school fees since he was in

Grade 7. He was a regular visitor to her home and Nigel described her as his “greatest fan”.

On the day of her murder, Rust planned to help Nigel get his driver’s licence but, instead, Nigel and his uncle killed her and robbed her of jewellery and a laptop.

According to court testimony of Dr Deidre Abrahams, who conducted an autopsy on Rust, there were signs that she had tried to fight off her attackers. Tape was put around her neck and her airways were blocked so that she could not breathe.

The Plaatjies were found guilty of murder and robbery in 2017. In 2018, they were both sentenced to life in prison for the murder and an additional 15 years for robbery.

Karabo Mokoena was 22 when she was murdered by Sandile Mantsoe, who stabbed her and burnt her body beyond recognition in Lyndhurst, Johannesburg. Her body was discovered in April 2017.

Mokoena had been in a romantic relationship with Mantsoe since 2016 and had told her family she was being abused by him.

In his bail application, Mantsoe denied killing Mokoena, but said he had disposed of her body after he came home and found she had committed suicide.

He tried to paint her as a troubled woman who cut herself and assaulted him, but the court did not buy his testimony and in May found him guilty of murder.

High Court in Johannesburg Acting Judge Peet Johnson described Mantsoe as the devil in disguise and sentenced him to 30 years for murder, five for assault and four for the attempt to obstruct the course of justice. The last two charges will run concurrently with the murder sentence.

Student Hannah Cornelius, 21, was brutally raped and murdered by four men she did not know. Her body was found on May 27, 2017 on the side of a road near a wine farm outside Stellenbosch.

She was last seen alive with her friend, Cheslin Marsh, when four men forced the two students into her car in Bird Street. Marsh was stoned and left for dead near Kraaifontein, while Cornelius was raped and later stabbed at Groenhof Farm.

Three of the men, Vernon Witbooi, Geraldo Parsons and Eben van Niekerk, got two life sentences each, plus more time, while Nashville Julius, who fled before his accomplices drove off with the students, was handed 15 years for two counts of robbery and seven years for kidnapping. His sentences will run concurrently. – News24 Wire

Sandile Mantsoe was the devil in disguise