Africa-Press – South-Africa. The Free State High Court, sitting in Welkom, has handed a life term to a man who staged a hijacking to kill his girlfriend – who was the mother of his child – and claim a R70 000 funeral policy.
According to Free State National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Phaladi Shuping, Malefetsane Phillip Mpotle, 31, was sentenced to life imprisonment after he was found guilty of the murder of his girlfriend, Anna Pule, in 2021.
His accomplices, Mojaki Phara and Sbongile Soul, were also convicted of killing Pule.
Phara was sentenced to life imprisonment and Soul was handed a prison term of 23 years.
Mpotle worked with Phara and Soul to stage the hijacking.
The investigation showed that a month earlier, Mpotle had taken out a R70 000 funeral policy at Old Mutual for Pule.
Shuping said that Mpotle approached Phara and a person called Gift to kill Pule, who was a student at the Central University of Technology.
Phara was reluctant to kill Pule as she reminded him of his little sister.
Later, Mpotle approached Phara again and indicated that he would kill Pule himself in the staged hijacking but needed Phara to take the car from the scene with her body and involve it in an accident to get rid of it.
“On 13 May 2021, Mpotle drove with Pule and their 3-year-old baby from Theunissen to Hennenman. They picked up Phara and Soul, who pretended to be hitchhiking, and drove toward Winburg. Shortly thereafter, Phara took out a knife and pretended to threaten Mpotle, but he gave the knife to Mpotle, who stabbed Pule several times,” Phaladi said.
He said Phara and Soul drove off with Pule’s body in the car while Mpotle went with the child to the Theunissen police station to report a “hijacking”.
They were found guilty of murder.
During arguments in aggravation of sentence, the prosecutor – advocate Moipone Moroka – called for harsh sentences for the three men.
Moroka argued that Mpotle had killed his girlfriend, the mother of his 3-year-old child, for a “lousy R70 000” and promised Phara and Soul R25 000 each.
“The accused have no respect for human life. They killed the deceased most brutally in front of his child. Mpotle even had the audacity of going to the police to report a false hijacking”, said Moroka.
Judge Ilse van Rhyn also sentenced all the accused to three years for theft, and Mpotle was given a further 12 months in prison for defeating the ends of justice.
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