![](https://images.caxton.co.za/wp-content/uploads/sites/25/2015/08/Cuburne-van-Wyk-3-y_16132.jpg)
The Ramaphosa man recently found guilty of the kidnapping and killing of Cuburne, last year, was reportedly sentenced to life in prison on Friday, August 7.
The case was heard by the High Court of Johannesburg, sitting in the Palm Ridge Magistrates Court.
Pieterson told this journalist that he could not help smiling when the judge in Chicken’s trial handed down the sentence on Friday.
“I’m so happy. I had a broad smile on my face, and I felt an incredible sense of relief,” he said.
“The sentence will not bring our child back, but at least…it will bring some form of closure for the family.
Cuburne went missing in August, last year, and his partially burnt body was found, three days later, at a mine dump in Reiger Park.
![GRIEF-STRICKEN: The grief suffered by Cuburne’s mother, Lizelle van Wyk, at her son's death was terrible.](https://images.caxton.co.za/wp-content/uploads/sites/25/2015/08/mother_79600-520x390.jpg)
Exactly a week after the child was kidnapped, no-nonsense EMPD officers arrested Mpoku in Lambton, on suspicion of kidnapping and murdering the little boy.
He made several court appearances before he was recently found guilty of the crimes.
![ARRESTED: No-nonsense EMPD officers arrested Katlego Phoku, on suspicion of kidnapping and murdering the little boy.](https://images.caxton.co.za/wp-content/uploads/sites/25/2015/08/poku_87167-520x390.jpg)
Mpoku was on parole when the murder occurred, but details about his past criminal convictions are, however, still sketchy.
The Parole Board subsequently decided to withdraw his parole, and deemed the accused not to have been sufficiently rehabilitated.
In another story, police are still trying to track down the killers of a four-year-old boy from Delmore, Taegrin Morris.
Despite all the promises made by senior police officers, ensuring residents that the perpetrators would soon be brought to book, the suspects remain at large and, seemingly, the murder has become a cold case. – @FanieBoksburg
![RELIEVED: The sentencing of Cuburne’s killer can bring a ''measure of closure'' to the child’s mother, Lizelle van Wyk, and the rest of his family.](https://images.caxton.co.za/wp-content/uploads/sites/25/2015/08/mother2_65124-520x390.jpg)