By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The Johannesburg High Court has sentenced Ntuthuko Shoba to life imprisonment for ordering the murder of Tshegofatso Pule.
Shoba was convicted of plotting the the murder of Pule, his estranged lover at the time. Pule, who was pregnant, was found hanging from a tree in the veld in Roodepoort.
Her family last saw her when she went with Shoba to buy clothes for their baby. She later sent them a text message saying she and Shoba had argued and she was returning home.
CCTV cameras captured images of her leaving Shoba’s apartment block in a grey Jeep on June 4 2020. She was not seen again until her corpse was found four days later.
Shoba was connected to the crime by Muzikayise Malephane, who confessed that he was hired to kill Pule.
Sentencing was due to take place in May but was postponed when Shoba argued that the pre-sentencing report was incomplete.
“You will spend the rest of your natural life in prison unless the parole authorities consider you fit for release in the fullness of time,” said Johannesburg high court acting judge Stuart Wilson.
Wilson did not mince his words when handing down the sentence.
“The shock and trauma Shoba apparently experienced [an argument offered in mitigation of sentencing] do not in themselves bear on the sentence to be imposed.
“This is especially so because in my judgment convicting Shoba I found Ms Pule’s murder was premeditated,” he said.
As a result, he said the criminal law amendment act required him to sentence Shoba to life in prison unless there were circumstantial and compelling circumstances to justify a lesser sentence.
“He contracted another to carry out the killing.
“That Ms Pule was pregnant when she was killed is also plainly very aggravating, as is the degree of planning and persistence Shoba demonstrated in bringing about Ms Pule’s death,” the judge said.
Pule, then 28, was found riddled with gunshots and hanging from a tree in Durban Deep in Roodepoort, Johannesburg in 2020.