After claiming that his 64-year-old mother, Thembi Ngwenya, was a witch, 33-year-old Bongani Thulani Matsane was sentenced to life in jail and five more years of incarceration.
On Friday, September 20, 2024, the Mpumalanga Division of the High Court condemned Matsane.
In a statement following the sentencing, Monica Nyuswa, the regional spokesperson for the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) in Mpumalanga, stated that Matsane was living with his mother on her homestead in Mganduzweni, in the district of Nsikazi.
The accused said that something was wrong in his life and that he needed his mother to quit bewitching him when he confronted her in December 2022.
“On the evening of 14 December 2022, the deceased sent the accused to buy bread in a local shop and on his return with the bread, he gave it to the deceased and went out,” the statement read.
Taking a handhoe, he came up behind the dead man. The dead raced out of the house, pleading for help, as he whacked her in the head with it.
He pursued her till she lost consciousness.
After that, he pulled her into her bedroom, laid her down on the bed, and lit the bed. He went back and cleaned the bloodstain off the floor.
That day, the accused was taken into custody.
Senior State Attorney Thulani Msibi told the court that the accused’s guilty plea does not reflect true regret and that the court cannot depart from the life sentence that has been set because of his belief in bad luck.
Advocate Msibi went on to say that the accused killed a person he was tasked with looking after.
The other deceased boys’ victim impact statements, which were prepared with assistance from Court Preparation Officer Nomfundo Mokoena, were given.
They described how their lives had been drastically altered, how they had lost money, how they could not believe the horrible things the accused had done to their mother, and how they had to attend counselling sessions.
Judge Manthata stated at the accused’s sentencing that the accused’s murder of his mother and his torture of an elderly person were the greatest aggravating factors.
The defendant received a life sentence for murder and a five-year prison sentence for subverting the course of justice.
The accused will essentially serve a life sentence since the court ordered the sentence for count 2 to run concurrently with the sentence for count 1.
The accused was additionally ruled by the court to be unable to deal with elderly people.
“This sentence highlights the NPA’s commitment to ensuring that perpetrators of such crimes are severely punished to deter others,” the statement added.
