Photo: Stock/Canva
Pretoria man gets 12-year sentence for killing girlfriend in front of her kids
A sickening and heartless Pretoria murder.
This man will spend less than 12 years in jail for brutally murdering his girlfriend.
Photo: Stock/Canva
Is 12 years behind bars a strong enough sentence for a brutal Pretoria murder? That’s the question South Africans are asking themselves. 37-year-old Sipho Frans Mahlangu was handed the sentence this week by the Pretoria High Court. He was found guilty of murdering his girlfriend in front of her two children in Mamelodi East.
Pretoria murder: 12-year sentence raises eyebrows
Domestic violence is a term that is all too synonymous with South Africans.
Mahlangu pleaded guilty to the murder that he committed in February 2021.
At the time of the killing, he arrived at the home of Philindile Christabel Nsingwane, when he saw a man run out of the premises. Mahlangu had been sharing the home with Nsingwane.
The NPA says that he then went inside the house and found Nsingwane naked in the bed. That’s when things turned horrifically violent. Mahlangu ended up using a piece of wood, a spade and a broken bottle to kill his girlfriend.
“Mahlangu started assaulting the deceased with a plank, shovel and broken bottle in the presence of children. After, he left with the two kids. The following day early in the morning, he called the neighbour to go check at his place, the neighbour went and found the lifeless body of the deceased on top of the bed full of blood.”
NPA North Gauteng Regional Spokesperson Lumka Mahanjana
The neighbour then called the police. Mahlangu was arrested that very same day. The Pretoria murder took place in front of Nsingwane’s two young children.
NPA welcomes the 12-year sentence
The NPA says it asked for the maximum sentence of life imprisonment for Mahlangu, owing to the fact that the crime was in front of children. The Judge took a different view, and argued that Mahlangu “will have to live the rest of his life with what he did”.
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Both children are now under the guardianship of their uncle. According to the NPA, they are struggling to cope and continuously call out for their mother at night.
Both children are still receiving counselling. The NPA has welcomed the 12-year sentence for the Pretoria murder.
