Pretoria - A former Soshanguve police sergeant will spend the rest of his life behind bars for attacking his ex-girlfriend and injuring her and her 6-year-old son while killing her mother.
Mautla Silas Maluleke, 42, formerly of the Rietgat police station in Soshanguve, was this week sentenced to life imprisonment for a count of murder, 10 years each for two counts of murder and 12 years’ imprisonment for arson.
He appeared before the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria on Wednesday to accept his fate that he would be spending the rest of his life in jail after being convicted by the same court earlier this year.
According to the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) in Gauteng, Maluleke committed the offences in the first week of June 2021 when he attacked the house of his ex- girlfriend, Constable Rhofiwa Munyai.
Ipid spokesperson Robbie Raburabu said Maluleke went to Munyai’s house and started shooting randomly towards the house, injuring Munyai and her 6-year-old son and killing her 82-year-old mother, Tshavhungwe Munyai.
“There was an exchange of gunfire before he set the house on fire and escaped until he got arrested a week later. He was denied bail until his conviction and sentence on Wednesday,” Raburabu said.
Maluleke has appeared in court several times since his arrest with his defence presenting a plea bargain that eventually failed.
Maluleke was dismissed from the SAPS during the trial following recommendations by Ipid, Raburabu added.
Raburabu added that Ipid’s executive director, Dikeledi Ntlatseng, had expressed appreciation to all the investigators involved in the investigation of the matter.
Meanwhile, a police constable was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment or R6 000 fine wholly suspended for a period of 12 months, according to Raburabu.
This comes after Constable Ezekiel Letlhogonolo Nkuta, 35, was convicted of assault with grievous bodily harm at the Bloemfontein Magistrate’s Court last month.
He was further declared unfit to possess a firearm in terms of section 103 of the Firearms Control Act 60 of 2000.
“The officer was based at the Park Road detectives at the time and was engaged in a fight with his girlfriend and his friend.
“The victim, a 25-year-old Itumeleng Nkaki, stepped in to stop the fight. The accused then assaulted him with a brick on the face and he lost two teeth as a result of the assault”.
In another case in the Northern Cape, Ipid secured a conviction for Sergeant Simphiwe Ncube, 36, and Constable Andile Ntshweza, 37, for rape.
The suspects are alleged to have both raped a 26-year-old victim in 2017 at the house of one of the suspects after she was offered a lift from Upington town to her place in Rosedale.
“The accused first took her to Ncube’s house, raped her before she left to go and open up a case of rape.
“The case was investigated until the accused were convicted at the Upington special offences court this year. They still await sentencing,” Raburabu said.
Pretoria News