Pretoria - Evil spirits “made him” kill and rape a six-year-old child, before setting her body alight, a man has told the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria.
This was the excuse of Moses Makoso, 31, from De Deur near Vereeniging, who was sentenced to two life terms behind bars, as well as a further 10 years’ imprisonment.
His sentencing came two days before the official campaign of 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children came to an end on Saturday.
Makoso, who pleaded guilty to murder, rape and kidnapping of the girl, as well as obstruction of justice, is one of many such cases across the country where the courts are conveying the message that they will deal harshly with these type of crimes.
On April 29 last year, the child, her brother, and a friend had gone to the bush in Maboloka, close to Makoso’s house, to pick a traditional cucumber.
The court was told that Makoso called the three children to his house. He instructed the brother and the friend to go back home to fetch their shoes. While they were away, he took the child to nearby bushes, where he raped and strangled her to death. He then set her body alight.
When the two boys returned, they found no one and they alerted a family member of her disappearance.
The community and the family searched for the missing child and only found her after Makoso confessed and pointed out the body.
Asked why he did it, he claimed that he was instructed by evil spirits to commit the crimes.
In a separate case, a father was on Friday sentenced to three life imprisonment terms for raping his daughter.
The Estcourt Regional Court in KwaZulu-Natal concluded that the father, 49, deserved the ultimate sentence. He raped his daughter over a 15-year timespan.
The court was told that this started when she was only five years old. She was raped whenever her stepmother was at work. He always threatened her with an axe or a bush knife, saying that he would kill her if she told anyone.
She reported the matter after she fell pregnant and had her father’s child.
The woman told the court that she doesn’t know how she will explain to her child that they have the same father.
In another case in Pretoria, a mother received four life terms as well as a further 30 years for a range of sexual offences committed against her five-year-old daughter.
The Pretoria North Magistrate’s Court sentenced her following her conviction on four counts of rape, two counts of sexual assault, and exposure to genitals, as well as three counts of creation of pornography.
The mother was in a relationship with a man who is a co-accused in the matter.
From December 2021 to March 2022, the mother and her boyfriend raped the child, using objects. They sexually assaulted her and made the child perform sexual acts on her and her boyfriend.
When the boyfriend was at his own home, the mother would take pictures of the child’s private parts, and videos of her performing sexual acts on the child and send it to her boyfriend for his pleasure.
The Directorate of Public Prosecutions welcomed the sentences in each of these cases and expressed the hope that it will convey the message that this behaviour will not be tolerated by the courts.
Pretoria News