NPA
Four men who killed an elderly Eastern Cape woman accused of witchcraft, have been jailed for an effective 17 years each.
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) says the four were sentenced in the High Court, sitting in Sterkspruit this week.
Spokesperson, Luxolo Tyali says a fifth accused was jailed for seven years for imputing witchcraft and assaulting the 92-year-old woman in a village near Sterkspruit in 2020.
The killers, most of whom were related to the deceased, subjected her to the most horrific death on the 14th of March 2020, shortly after a funeral of a family member.
Thirty-four-year-old Siyabulela, 36-year-old Mzubongile and 40-year-old Mlungisi Manundu as well as the 52-year-old Sithembiso Yalwa accused Nosayinethe Manundu of hiding the deceased family member in a trunk and that he was still alive.
Tyali says they stripped her naked and assaulted her before locking her inside her rondavel and setting it on fire.
He says the elderly woman's ordeal did not end there because she managed to escape and ran away but was caught by the suspects who then put her in a big drum full of water, head first, and drowned her.
The NPA's Tyali says two people who took part in the assault turned State Witness.
He says the Judge, however, regarded the men's subjective belief in witchcraft as a mitigating factor and felt that they could be rehabilitated as it was their first offence as they were model citizens before the murder.
Some of Manundu's death was captured on a cellphone camera and was widely shared on social media.
The NPA welcomed the sentence expressing hope that it will serve as a deterrent to other communities, as witchcraft killings are rife in the rural Eastern Cape.
