THOHOYANDOU – A man who hacked his son to death and seriously injured his daughter was sentenced to life imprisonment last Tuesday. Both the community and the victims hailed the Thohoyandou High Court after the sentencing.

Judge George Hetisani sentenced Thomani Reckson Mukona (44) to life-term imprisonment for murdering his son Muvhuya Mukona, who was only eighteen months old during the time of his death on October 20, last year. Hetisani also sentenced Mukona to 35 years imprisonment for attempting to kill his 6-year-old daughter Mulanda Mukona. He also received another ten years for arson, ten years for attempting to murder Freddy Thagwana and another ten years for attempting to murder his former wife, Matodzi Mulondo.

According to court documents, on October 20, last year at about 11:30, Mukona followed his ex-wife Matodzi to

Thangwana's home. It was established that Thangwana was her new lover and he poured petrol on the house where they were sleeping and set it alight.

The two managed to escape with burn wounds. Petrol containers and a small blanket belonging to the accused were found at the scene.

When police traced Mukona for the arson case the following day, he managed to get out of the hut and vanished into the mountains. His minor children aged 18 months and five years, Muvhuya and Mulanda, were found lying in a pool of blood inside the hut. It later emerged that he tried to kill his children with an axe.

Muvhuya was dead while Mulanda was in a critical condition with open wounds on her forehead, hands and legs. She was taken to the Polokwane Provincial Hospital. She was fortunate to survive.

Mukona, who was regarded as a feared criminal in the community, because of his record of killing his first wife and other cases of assaulting people, was only arrested at Waterpoort after eleven days of searching.

Before passing sentence, Judge Hetisani said he broke into tears when he saw the pictures of the attacked children. He described Mukona as an extremely violent person who does not deserve to live with people.

"You deserve to be locked away. You were given a second chance to lead a normal life after you killed your first wife, but you repeated the same crime. If it was before 1994, there was nothing except facing the death penalty. Your surviving daughter, Mulanda, is going to be an invalid person because of your jealousy. The children were innocent, but you attacked them," said Judge Hetisani.

Hetisani said he would recommend to all South African prisons that Mukona must not be eligible for parole until after having served 20 years of his sentence.

Mukona did not show any sign of remorse when Judge Hetisani passed the sentence. He also refused to tell the court what exactly happened during the time of the crimes he committed.

Mukona was first sentenced to fourteen years imprisonment for killing his first wife Takalani Gladys Mukona. Four of these years were suspended for five years on condition that he is not convicted of a crime involving violence towards a person during the period of suspension.

The incident happened at the gate of the police station on March 25, 1991, where Mukona stabbed his wife to death on their way from attending a court hearing, as they had some differences.

On June 3 1990, Mukona was sentenced to twelve months imprisonment for assaulting another person with intent to do grievous bodily harm. Three months of that sentence were conditionally suspended. On June 19, 2001, Mukona was fined R300 after he was found guilty of assaulting another person.