A man died in the prime of his life for R100. Now his killer has been given a 10-year jail sentence for the murder.
Mandla Sithole, a former Orlando Pirates striker whose skills earned him the nickname “Metroblitz”, kept his head bowed at the pronouncement of his sentence.
The family of victim Thulani Ndlovu quietly repeated “thank God, thank God”.
Sithole stabbed Ndlovu to death in May 2009 after an altercation over R100 that Ndlovu owed him.
Sithole had driven to Ndlovu’s home in Dobsonville to get the cash. When Ndlovu said he did not have it, Sithole plunged a press-button knife with a long blade into his chest, fatally wounding him.
Handing down the sentence at the Roodepoort Magistrate’s Court yesterday, magistrate John Baloyi said Sithole had killed Ndlovu for nothing.
“The accused maintains the stabbing was an accident, but it cannot be. He stabbed the deceased as he (Ndlovu) was walking away. It could not have been an accident,” he said.
“The deceased died a violent death. The accused stabbed him as he begged him not to harm him. He (Ndlovu) said: ‘ Ta mindlo(Sithole), please don’t do this’, but the accused ignored his pleas. Ta mindlo is a term of endearment in the township to show respect,” the magistrate said.
“The accused did not show mercy, but requested the court to show him mercy.”
Baloyi said that moments before being stabbed to death, Ndlovu had got out of Sithole’s car, and it was then that the latter should have exercised his choice of not going after him and subsequently stabbing him to death.
Baloyi said Sithole must serve four-fifths (eight years) of the 10 years before being considered for parole.
Outside the court, Ndlovu’s sister Smangele said the family were happy with the sentence, although they would have been happier if Sithole had been given a longer term. “During the sentencing, the magistrate said the minimum sentence for this kind of crime was 15 years, so we don’t know where the 10 years is coming from,” she said.
Sithole’s lawyer, advocate Jurg Huysamen, put through an application for leave to appeal his client’s conviction and sentence, saying Sithole had not received a fair trial and that the interpretation had not been done correctly.
The State will respond on June 30.