TSHITALE – The Venda High court has sentenced Tsepo France Mashiane (24) of Slinger Village to fourty years in jail on two counts of murder last Friday. The incident to which the case is related took place in the bushes of Slinger village on the 4th of last month at about 07:00.

The court heard that Mashiane and his 20-year-old wife (the deceased), Onica Mafhoho, had some family differences in June this year. The feud led to a separation between the couple.

On the day of the incident the deceased was in the company of three friends. They were on their way to Mulima Village. Mashiane followed them and found them along the way, somewhere in the bushes. He stood in front of the deceased and asked her why she was not willing to stay with him anymore. During the discussion, Mashiane assaulted his wife with an open hand.

One of the friends tried to intervene and the accused told her to keep quiet or else she would be "in for it". The deceased's friends then proceeded with their journey and thus left the deceased with the accused. Mashiane then produced a knife and stabbed Mafhofho several times all over the body.

He later produced a tomahawk and chopped the deceased to death. Mafhofho was carrying her two-year-old daughter, Petunia, on her back. After killing the woman, Mashiane also chopped the little girl to death with the same tomahawk. The accused went to the Tshitale police station the following day and told the police that he had killed his former wife and his daughter.

He led the police to the scene where they found the two bodies lying in a pool of blood. Mashiane appeared in the Tshitale Magistrate's Court several times, before the case was referred to the High Court. He was sentenced to twenty years in jail for murdering Mafhoho. A further twenty years of imprisonment were imposed on him for the killing of his daughter. Half of the second sentence was suspended for five years, while the two sentences will run concurrently.

Mashiane was working at the Spanyu Plantation as a clerk at the time of his arrest.