Child-killer condemned to death
Mpho Mokwape | Tuesday December 19, 2023 06:51
Mokobela, who was 25 years old at the time he committed the heinous crime, was on a previous court appearance found guilty without any extenuating circumstances for allegedly sexually assaulting the minor and later killing her by slitting her throat with a knife.
When handing down the sentence, Rannowane said there was no excuse for what Mokobela did and that at the time he committed the offence he was old enough to know the difference between right and wrong.
"This was a crime that should have never happened to an innocent child. She did not deserve to be killed.
You were old enough to know that what you did was wrong, there is no excuse for what you did," he said. The Chief Justice said the 31-year-old Mokobela would hang by the neck until he died for brutalising the innocent child. Rannowane added that there was no excuse for the brutal attack on an innocent child who was taken while at play at home, unaware of the lurking danger around her.
He explained that there was no sentence more befitting than death for the murder of an innocent child who had nothing to do with any conflict between adults.
The facts of the case are that on the fateful day in 2018, the convicted Mokobela left a drinking depot and headed to the home of the five-year-old girl whom he found playing with her seven-year-old brother. It was alleged that Mokobela then grabbed the child and took off to a nearby bush with her.
At the time while all this was happening, the brother followed Mokobela pleading that he let go of his sister but he did not burge. It was alleged in court that Mokobela upon approaching the bush put the child down, took out a knife and assaulted her. "Upon entering the bush he put her down on the ground, took out a knife and slit her throat.
The baby sister's brother ran back home to seek for help," read court papers.
The presented evidence before court suggested that the boy, on his way home to seek help, met with his father and tearfully narrated to him a man was "hurting his baby sister in the bush". The father then rushed to the scene of the crime, where he found Mokobela on top of the child. Still, Mokobela managed to get away when he saw the boy's father. He was later located by the police, who arrested him and charged him with the murder of a minor child.