SOUTH AFRICA: Two white rugby players were yesterday each sentenced to 18 years imprisonment for murdering a black boy of 17 in what the judge described as a vicious and pointless crime.
The long sentences aside, the highly publicised trial ended dramatically yesterday when one of the two convicted men tried to grab the state prosecutor, a white woman. "Are you satisfied now?" Riaan Botha demanded to know as he reached for Ms Annamarie Schutte from the dock.
Ms Schutte had asked the court to impose life sentences on Botha and Ben Korf, arguing that they had conspired to murder Tshepo Matloha, that the killing was racially motivated and that there were no mitigating circumstances.
Judge Bernard Ngoepe found that the state had not proved beyond doubt that the killing was racially motivated, though he viewed their actions as exceptionally "contemptuous and insensitive". They had shown no respect for the boy when he was alive or for his body after the killed him, he said.
Evidence was led that Botha, captain of a rugby team in Limpopo province, had trampled on Matloha's head while Korf had jumped on his chest. Later Botha and another accused, Kobus Joubert, removed the corpse and threw it into a dam.
Botha and Joubert, another of his rugby teammates, were yesterday each sentenced to four years imprisonment for attempting to defeat the ends of justice. Botha's sentence for that offence would, however, run concurrently with his 18-year sentence. The killing occurred after Matloha was caught poaching on a farm owned by Botha's mother. Shots were reportedly fired at Matloha's cousins, Alex and Melford Motlokwana, as they ran away. The judge acquitted the accused of charges of attempted murder relating to the Motlokwana brothers.