The Mpumalanga division of the high court sitting in Middleburg has sentenced Nick Kolokoto Mpolokeng to life imprisonment for killing 83-year-old woman Elizabeth Kolokoto.
The court also sentenced Mpolokeng to six years imprisonment for arson and five years for housebreaking and theft.
According to police, investigations revealed that Mpolokeng was at the local tavern when he planned to rob the old lady who was staying alone on the same street as him at Phake Village.
Murder plot
It is said that he recruited his friend to accompany him.
On the way they met another person who convinced the friend to go with him, leaving Mpolokeng alone.
“Even though he was alone, he carried out his mission as planned,” police spokesperson Brigadier Selvy Mohlala said.
The investigation, according to police, further revealed that Mpolokeng went straight to the old woman’s house where he gained entrance to the yard through jumping the fence, broke her bedroom window and then entered the house.
ALSO READ: Elderly woman gruesomely murdered in her home
He found Kolokoto already awake and demanded money from her. When she indicated that she had no money, the accused assaulted her, banged Kolokoto against the wall until she fell down.
He ransacked the house only to come out with R36, Mohlala said.
“It also transpired that [Mpolokeng] set the paper alight and threw it under the granny’s bed before he left. The house burnt into ashes with the granny inside. [Mpolokeng] then went home, changed his clothes and went inside a pit toilet where he burnt his clothes which had some bloodstains,” Mohlala said.
Bloody shoes
Mpolokeng, Mohlala said, went to sleep but, the next morning, he realised that his running shoes had blood stains so he threw them in the pit toilet to conceal the evidence.
Police were summoned to the crime scene where they only found the human skull which was identified by the Mpolokeng’s brother
Mohlala said the police’s investigation led them to [Mpolokeng] who later admitted that his bloodstained running shoes were thrown inside the pit toilet.
ALSO READ: Man murders 77-year-old woman, wounds her daughter and kidnaps grandchild
He said that was the beginning of a major breakthrough which enabled police, through forensic investigation, to nail Mpolokeng.
Mohlala said Mpolokeng was positively linked to the crime and he finally admitted to have killed Kolokoto, robbery and arson.
“The court found him guilty hence the hefty sentence handed down. The Provincial Commissioner of the Saps in Mpumalanga, Lieutenant-General Semakaleng Daphney Manamela was elated by the professionalism displayed by the investigation team,” he said.
Mohlala said Manamela expressed her sincere gratitude to the prosecution team and the judiciary for putting Mpolokeng behind bars, “where he belongs for the longest time”.
