Sentencing for three black males who murdered Piet van den Berg 64 and torched homestead with wife Madeleine locked inside a closet:
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June 18 2014 - The Citizen reports:
"One of the black men who murdered a Cullinan farmer and set his house alight with his wife locked in a cupboard had confessed to the crime, but a minute later denied everything again, the North Gauteng High Court has heard.
Probation officer Angelinah Llale testified that Wonder Makwakwa had told her in detail how he and Given Kanyane had planned the July 2009 attack on Cullinan farmer Piet van den Berg, 64, and his wife, Madelein.
“He was emotional when he told it. His eyes were red. He also showed he felt something inside that he regretted.
“I told him the truth will set him free and asked him to tell the truth. Then he excused himself – and when he came back he was a different person.
“In his first version he told in detail about the planning. The second version was a complete denial,” Llale said.
Makwakwa, Kanyane and Mduduzi Hlengethwa were earlier convicted on a range of charges including murdering Van den Berg, attempting to murder his wife, robbing the couple and setting their house alight.
In her evidence, Madelein van den Berg identified the three accused as the men who had attacked her and her husband. She was locked in a cupboard and asked if she had any last wishes before the house was set alight. She managed to escape.
http://citizen.co.za/196968/court-hears-of-killer-robbers-about-turn/
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June 19 2014 - PRETORIA High Court -- Being sentenced for their inhumane crimes against the elderly Afrikaner couple were Mduduzi Hlengethwa, Mphanyana Kanyane and Mbongezini Makwakwa.
Afrikaner smallholder Madeleine van den Berg lost everything: her husband Piet was murdered, her home was torched and she managed to flee only with the clothes on her back (date and place of murder: July 11 2009 Cullinan, North West, South Africa.
Pretoria High Court, 20 June 2014. SA journalist Hanti Otto reports on the guilty verdict of three black males who murdered Cullinan smallholder Piet van den Berg and
torched the couple's homestead.
"Their loot was little - but Madeleine van den Berg lost everything,' said public prosecutor Advocate Lizette Williams in the Pretoria High Court,
pleading for life-sentence in prison for all three men.
Being sentenced for their crimes against an elderly Afrikaner couple were Mduduzi Hlengethwa, Mphanyana Kanyane and Mbongezini Makwakwa
"Mrs van den Berg lost everything. Her husband was murdered, she fled from her torched home with just the clothes on her body.
She lost items of sentimental value such as family photographs. Mrs Van den Berg and her husband did not get any second chances.
These were supposed to be their 'golden retirement years'.
The three 'robbers' were found guilty earlier of murdering Piet van den Berg, attempted murder of his wife, robbery with extinuating circumstances, arson and
the illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition.
Mrs van den Berg testified how her husband was murdered: she said the black male attackers tied her up while Kanyana ordered her husband to 'show him where his watch was.'
"He was shot dead there,' she told the court. Makwakwa meanwhile was cutting into her arm with a knife and then locked her up inside the closet of the bedroom.
The black man asked her 'what her last wish was' and testified that she wanted to reply 'I want to go to heaven'.
Then she heard the click of a fire-lighter.
The men left the homestead after they torched it. Madelein managed to break out of the closet and tried to drag her dead husband from the torched farmhouse.
Williams said the three guilty men had to spend a lifetime in prison for their crimes.
"If Madelein hadn't been able to escape from the closet, she would have died a terrible death."
Williams said 'the attack was well planned, and every one of the men played their own role in this crime.
"Long after the murder was committed they kept stepping over the dead man while stealing items from the house - although these had very little monetary value when compared to Madeleine's loss.
She lost everything'.
Advocate John Makama pleaded for mitigation of sentence for Makwakwa - saying he 'was barely 18, almost still a minor, when committing the crime.
"He was 12 years old when he stabbed his dad with a knife when his mother was being assaulted. He wanted to protect his mother.
His father chased him away and his mother did nothing. He had a dysfunctional life and never got help to stop the aggression which developed in him since that time'.
https://www.facebook.com/116298045063416/photos/a.178568022169751.48293.116298045063416/902768849749661/?type=1&theater
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