UK’s
Ealing Studios enters new phase of £50m development
November 15 2006 at 06:51PM
www.iol.co.za
The Pietermaritzburg
High Court on Tuesday imposed five life sentences on a young man who helped massacre
a 76-year-old woman, a 46-year-old man and three children because he believed
that the victims had bewitched one of his relatives who became ill and died.
The
children who died were a girl and a youth of 15 years and a girl of five.
He
was also sentenced to 10 years jail for the attempted murder of a young girl and
a youth.
Acting
Judge Thandi Norman told the killer, Cuet Ngubane, 26, of Winterton, that a belief
in witchcraft did not give a person a licence to kill.
The
judge said she could not find substantial and compelling circumstances allowing
her to deviate from the prescribed life sentence when a murder was committed to
further a conspiracy.
The
victims were massacred in September 2005.
She
said that a five-year-old child had been lying down when she was shot and two
other children bled to death.
She
told Ngubane: "If you had found it in your heart to call for help their lives
could have been saved.
"You
left at 4am to cover your tracks. Our society would expect you to respect an old
woman but you did the opposite.
"All
the victims had several gunshot wounds and after shooting them but you left without
calling help."
The
indictment reads that Ngubane and a Sabelo Gumede decided to kill the victims,
believing that a cousin had died as a result of being bewitched by the victims.
They
went into the house of the victims and shot them.
Ngubane
had a CZ semi-automatic pistol. - Sapa
