The 26-year-old man who brutally murdered Tshimologo Letshabeng, a four-year-old girl from Potchefstroom, North West, was sentenced to three life terms on Wednesday.
Tshimologo Letshabeng killer gets hefty sentence
Bafana Johannes Mans appeared before a high court in Vryburg, where he learned of his fate for the diabolical killing of an innocent toddler. For sexually assaulting Leshabeng twice and subsequently killing her, Mans was sentenced to three life terms.
Further, the court added five years to the triple-max sentence for kidnapping.
Mans was arrested on Sunday, 16 May 2021, after Tshimologo Letshabeng’s lifeless and naked body was discovered in a bushy area in Kgomotso, a village situated near Taung, North West.
Evidence submitted in the trial revealed that Mans was a close associate and colleague of Letshabeng’s mother.
That weekend, Mans partied with the toddler’s mother at a tavern. Witnesses placed Mans as one of the people who had accompanied Letshabeng’s mother to a friend’s house.
The sadistic predator stayed behind and waited for the mother to fall asleep before he pounced on the defenceless four-year-old.
Mans, the court heard, took Letshabeng to a nearby bushy area and raped the toddler at least twice before viciously killing her.
Letshabeng’s body was found the next morning, and evidence pointed to the colleague as the last person seen with the four-year-old.
Mans will likely spend the rest of his life behind bars.
In a joint statement, the South African police and state prosecutors welcomed the court’s ruling, describing the sentence as “advocacy by the criminal justice system in dealing with those who act against the protection of women, children and the elderly.”
News of the Tshimologo Letshabeng sentence came days after Ntokozo Zikhali was arrested and charged with the murder and mutilation of four-year-old Bokgabo Poo.
The toddler’s body parts were found in a shallow grave on a property in Tamboville a day after she was reported missing. CCTV footage and witness testimony linked Zikhali, who, it was later determined in court, was out on bail for the alleged rape of a nine-year-old, to Poo’s murder.
Zikhali remains in police custody pending his next court appearance.