Murderer Ntuthuko Shoba looks certain to be handed a life imprisonment sentence, which would see him only becoming eligible for parole after serving 25 years in jail.
Acting Judge Stuart Wilson pronounced at the Johannesburg High Court on Friday that he found Shoba guilty of premeditated murder, as charged.
“ … I find the accused guilty of the premeditated murder of Tshegofatso Pule,” said Judge Wilson.
Shoba orchestrated the brutal killing of Pule, who was his heavily pregnant girlfriend. Her lifeless body was found hanging in a tree in Durban Deep, south of Joburg.
The prescribed minimum sentence for premeditated murder in South Africa is life imprisonment.
Shoba, who cut a forlorn figure as Judge Wilson read his judgment, faces a harsher sentence than Muzikayise Malepane, the self-confessed gangster he had contracted for R70 000 to kill Pule.
Malepane confessed that he shot and hanged Pule, after collecting her from Shoba’s complex in Florida, pretending to be an Uber driver.
Malepane was sentenced to 20 years behind bars last year after entering into a plea bargain with the State.
As part of the plea bargain, the 32-year-old Malepane spilt the beans on how Shoba had planned Pule’s murder until its execution on 4 June, 2020.
The 20 years’ imprisonment sentence meant that Malepane could be paroled after serving just 10 years.
On the other hand, a life sentence for the 33-year-old Shoba would see him removed from society for a quarter of a century.
Speaking to The Star following the verdict, Pule’s uncle and lawyer Itumeleng Katake, said the family was satisfied that Judge Wilson found Shoba guilty of premeditated murder.
“The premeditated murder verdict comes with a minimum sentence of life in jail. It doesn’t matter if he is a first offender or what, it carries a life sentence,” said Katake.
“I honestly don't see him (Shoba) presenting anything exceptional for the judge to deviate from giving him the minimum sentence.
“I don’t want to pre-empt the evidence, but as a family we’re going to be rooting for a life sentence.
“All that was important for the family was to know that he’s guilty of premeditated murder,” added Katake.
The judgment was well received by the public. Pule’s friends and relatives, gender activists and political parties gathered outside the court in numbers to welcome it.
Judge Wilson pronounced that all evidence pointed to “one direction: that Mr Shoba arranged for Mr Malepane to kill Ms Pule”.
“On evaluating the material evidence as a whole, it seems to me that there is no account of the facts proven before me that is consistent with Mr Shoba’s innocence,” said Judge Wilson.
He said that there was nothing that could make him accept that Malepane was prepared to commit a gruesome murder for no detectable motive, “and then to concoct a story that implicated Shoba” while he had no pre-existing ill-feelings towards him.
Importantly for the State’s case, Malepane’s evidence helped to corroborate the evidence that Shoba used an unregistered cellphone number to facilitate Pule’s murder.
Shoba denied ever using the 081 number, but evidence gathered by the State proved that it belonged to him.
Celltower triangulation placed the 081 number in the same location as Shoba’s registered 076 number many times.
The numbers were picked up at Cresta Mall on May 30, 2020. Shoba conceded he was at the mall that day.
There were instances when Shoba would call Malepane from his 076 number after missing calls from him on the 081 number.
Judge Wilson concluded that the evidence pertaining to the cellphones was “weighty enough” to corroborate Malepane’s assertion that Shoba used the 081 number to communicate with him.
Sentencing proceedings will kick off on May 10.
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