Four men found guilty of murdering a Khayelitsha woman and leaving her body in a cement drain will be sentenced in the Western Cape High Court on Monday.
Masimthembe Solontsi, Phumlani Nyewu, Melikhaya Mgushelo and Thabiso Balithoba were found guilty in December of the murder of 19-year-old Bongiwe Ninini in 2015.
Ninini was killed after she went to visit Nyewu who had she had dated for a while. The other three were also there, listening to music and drinking.
The court never established the motive for her murder, but an autopsy showed that she had been throttled and severely beaten, probably also with a spade.
The blows had been with such force that the pathologist found that her brain had even been damaged and a part of her skull crushed.
They had carried her to the field, where the drain was, in a sheet which was found near her body.
She also had injuries on her back and her buttocks, indicating that she was also dragged.
Last Tuesday, Acting Judge Mushtak Parker postponed sentencing to Monday, saying he needed to think about the best form of punishment for the men, who from his vantage point had until her brutal murder, led crime-free lives.
The State has recommended life in prison.
[Source: News24]
