Man guilty of murdering his sister and her five children
|Published
File picture: Timothy A. Clary File picture: Timothy A. Clary
Durban - Twenty-five-year-old Tsepang Solomon Mokhali on Thursday stood with his arms crossed and emotionless when he was convicted of killing his sister and her five children.
Handing down judgment, Durban High Court Judge Jacqui Hendriques said his motive was clearly greed.
“When he testified during the trial and was shown the crime-scene pictures, he showed not one iota of remorse or emotion,” she said.
Leonard Babore returned to his family home in Inanda, on December 30, 2012, to find the decomposing bodies of his wife, Nobuhle Leneha, and five children. His youngest child, a 15-month-old boy, was found alive in their main bedroom.
His life was spared, said the judge, because he was too young to identify Mokhali as the killer.
Leneha was fatally shot and stabbed. When the children went to see what happened and realising they were witnesses to the murder, Mokhali took them into the bathroom where he stabbed them 78 times.
Mokhali confessed to the police that he had one day seen Leneha counting a large sum of money.
He was unhappy with the amount he was paid to look after the house, clean, tend to the garden, feed the animals and do the occasional cooking.
He found a gun in the house while cleaning and decided he would use it when he stole the money from his sister.
When Babore tried in vain to reach his wife on her cellphone, he contacted Mokhali who lied to him, saying she had gone out.
When Babore called again later, Mokhali said she had not returned. Mokhali later switched off the phone, which was found in his possession when he was arrested.
He fled to Matatiele after the murders. Then with his wife and child, he returned to Lesotho.
Mokhali disputed his confession and pointing out the crime scene to the police. He said he was assaulted and forced to do so. However, Hendriques found that both were admissible as evidence.
“The enormity of what he did weighed on him, therefore he confessed and pointed out the crime scene to the police. He wanted to apologise to his family and Leonard Babore. The State has proved his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt,” she said.
“(The children) were stabbed repeatedly and viciously. Some of them had obviously died a painful death,” said the judge.
During arguments for sentencing, senior State advocate Kelvin Singh said he would have argued for the death penalty if legislation permitted.
He said Mokhali had committed the ultimate crime.
“He had bitten the hand that fed him. He betrayed their trust and committed a crime out of sheer greed,” said Singh.
He also argued that Mokhali had run away from the crime scene and evaded arrest for a year.
“He had two years before the trial started to reflect on his actions, but he hasn’t. Remorse is the gatekeeper to rehabilitation and we don’t have it here,” he said.
“He is a cold-hearted killer. The murder was premeditated. He planned to rob (Leneha) and used a firearm against a defenceless woman. He planned to rob and kill so that there were no witnesses.”
Singh said Mokhali should not be let loose in society and argued for a life sentence.
Mokhali’s lawyer, Ben Dlamini, said it was sad that Mokhali had been found guilty of killing his own sister and her children, something he denied through the trial.
He, however, argued that the murders were not premeditated, but a spur of the moment decision.
He described his client as an inexperienced criminal.
Sentencing is expected next month.
noelene.barbeau@inl.co.za
@noeleneb
Daily News