A South African man, Conwell Mongezi Chauke, has been sentenced to life imprisonment for the brutal murder of an 11-year-old girl.
Chauke, 34, stabbed Khothatso Welhelmina Tshabalala, 66 times after her mother rejected his romantic advances.
The North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria also sentenced Chauke from Loftus Gardens, to 6 years direct imprisonment for the kidnapping.
The court ordered that the sentence run concurrently, and he be declared unfit to possess a firearm.
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson for Gauteng Division, Lumka Mahanjana, in a statement on Monday, September 16, 2024, said Chauke was in a prayer group with the child's mother.
According to Mahanjana, Tshabalala was killed on December 29, 2020, after her mother received a threatening call from Chauke.
"On 29 December 2020, the mother of the deceased received a call while at work from Chauke, who was her prayer group member and prayer partner. Chauke then began to threaten the mother over the phone because she did not agree to meet with him the previous day and believed that she was taking him for a fool as he was interested in pursuing a love relationship with her," the statement read.
"In the afternoon of that same day, Chauke went to Mamelodi East where the minor child and her mother were residing and upon arrival, he found the child playing with her younger sister and the neighbour's child outside their neighbour's house.
"He then lured the child under the pretence that he wanted to collect his belongings from her home. When they got into her home, Chauke stabbed the child sixty-six times, he covered her body with linen on top of her bed and fled the scene.
"When the neighbours could not find the child, they went to look for her at her house when they found her deceased body on top of her bed. Police were called and two days after the incident on 31 December 2020 Chauke handed himself over at Lyttleton Police Station and has been in custody since.
"In court, Chauke denied kidnapping the child and only pleaded guilty to the charge of murder and attributed his actions to the anger he felt towards the mother of the child.
"However, the state adduced evidence which proved that indeed Chauke lured and kidnapped the child.
"During sentence proceedings, his legal representative, asked the court to consider the 3 years he spent in prison awaiting the finalization of his trial when imposing the sentence. Though he has previous convictions of theft, he is a first offender of violent crimes.
"In aggravation of sentence the state prosecutor Advocate Sipho Lalane argued that even though Chauke pleaded guilty to the charge of murder, he did not show remorse but is rather regretful of his actions.
"Furthermore, Adv Lalane said, Chauke, was convicted of a serious crime that is prevalent in the county. He stabbed and killed a minor child who was defenseless, vulnerable and could not protect herself, because her mother did not agree to his pursuit of a love relationship.
"Lalani also handed in two Victim Impact Statements (VIS), where the mother of the deceased expressed that since her child was killed, she is not psychologically well and that Chauke took away her best friend.
"In her VIS, the deceased sister mentioned that she is always lonely because she does not have anyone to play with as the deceased was also a friend to her. She also added that her school performance has declined after losing her sister.
"When handing down the sentence, Judge Jacobus Johannes Strijdom agreed with the state that Chauke was convicted of a serious offence which violated the deceased constitutional right to life.
"Furthermore, he was merciless when stabbing the child sixty-six times which shows that he is a danger to society and that it is the court's responsibility to protect society from offenders like him.
"Moreover, the interest of justice outweighs his circumstances, therefore, the court found no substantial and compelling circumstances to deviate from imposing the prescribed minimum sentence.
"The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) welcomes the sentence and hopes that it will sends a strong message that the NPA will ensure that offenders who commit such violent crimes against women and children don't have a place in society."
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