Death row inmate dead
Mpho Mokwape | Tuesday July 9, 2019 16:06
According to a savingram from the officer in charge at Central Prison, the 30-year-old passed away at Princess Marina Hospital.
Kgalalelo, who has been on death row since 2017 together with Mmika Mpe, were convicted of brutally murdering their employer, Reinette Vorster.
The Gantsi farm hands were sentenced to death for the 2014 incident and their sentence was confirmed early this year following a failed appeal.
In the savingram dated May 27, 2019 Kgalalelo is said to have been attended at prison sickbay where he was referred to Marina on the same day.
“In terms of section 62 (1) of the Prisons Act, you are informed about the death of condemned prisoner Tshiamo Kgalalelo who passed away on the 26th May 2019 around 1700 hrs at Marina. His next of kin (mother) was informed on the same day,” reads the savigram.
The Lobatse High Court judge, Abednego Tafa in 2017 had ruled that Kgalalelo and Mpe should be ‘hung by their necks until they died’ for their roles in the robbery, murder and arson attack on Vorster. The sentence came after Tafa failed to find extenuating circumstances for the pair’s crimes in a recent hearing.
The judge also sentenced the duo to 10 years for robbery, five years for theft of motor vehicle, three years for malicious damage to property and one year for abduction. The abduction and malicious damage to property sentences would run concurrently, while the two years of the motor vehicle sentence would run concurrently with the robbery sentence. The individual sentences for the robbery and motor vehicle theft are the minimum prescribed by law.
The High Court earlier had found that Kgalalelo and Mpe in January 2014 attacked Vorster, stealing her Toyota Hilux valued at P300,000, two cellphones and cash amounting to P11,000. The former employer had been driving from her farm to Gantsi at the time of the attack. The two then murdered Vorster and burnt her in the vehicle. Kgalalelo was arrested on February 3, 2014 at Vorster’s farm and Mpe, the day after in connection with a separate incident.
The duo had also been charged with sexual assault, but the court acquitted them of those charges due to insufficient evidence. The Court of Appeal bench Justices Ian Kirby, Isaac Lesetedi and Leatile Dambe confirmed the death sentence.