21 YEAR OLD GIRL MURDERS HER MOTHER... DEATH PENALTY?
BY
The Citizen
Judge Neil Tuchten said yesterday in the High Court in Pretoria that Bonolo Gwendolene Lekalakala, 21, had no remorse about her evil deeds, was not a candidate for rehabilitation and had it not been for her youth, her crimes would have demanded life sentences.
He sentenced her to 55 years’ imprisonment, of which she has to serve 20 years, for the murder of her mother, Evah, 49, and stepfather, Piet Beetge, 59, and for robbing them of their cellphones, cash and other goods.
Lekalakala admitted conspiring with her boyfriend, Tapelo Molokomme, and his friend, Kgangelo Rapelogo, to murder her parents. The two are to go on trial separately.
She convinced her mother and stepfather to let her stay at their home that night and then tried to poison them before letting the executioners into the house.
She stood by as the men strangled her mother and stepfather and attacked her stepfather with a brick. The bodies were later dumped in a river “like trash”.
Tuchten said although Lekalakala admitted guilt, her motive remained a mystery. She expressed no remorse and did not respond to the grief expressed by her stepfather’s family.
She let the executioners into the house, provided them with the instruments of murder and tried to help them escape justice by reporting her parents as missing.
Tuchten said it was worrying that Lekalakala had brought catastrophe to two families, but he did not know why she did it.
Alcohol, drugs, extreme poverty or even greed played no part. He found mitigation in her guilty plea and youth, saying there was perhaps a spark of humanity in her which long imprisonment and counselling might nurture and bring to flower.
[There has been a long debate in my country about whether the death penalty should be brought back. Of course I'm of the opinion that life is (despite my nihilism and a lack of a better word) that life is special and sacred (blah blah). I want to know what you guys think. Should it be brought back in case like these, what are your views on legal system and youth offenders and what is it like in you country]