Lucky Mabhobo Silinda (28) has been convicted of violent crimes and was sentenced to a life term plus 70 years of direct imprisonment by the Mpumalanga Division of the High Court on March 12.
According to the Mpumalanga spokesperson of the National Prosecuting Authority, Monica Nyuswa, the court’s decision came after the criminal entered into a plea sentence agreement with the state.
“In his plea, Silinda pleaded guilty to the crimes and was subsequently convicted of housebreaking with intent to rob, robbery with aggravating circumstances, murder and attempted murder. These crimes were committed between September 2021 to June 2022 in Clau-Clau, Pienaar, KaBokweni and Masoyi. He would break into his victims’ houses, threaten them with a firearm and rob them of their valuables like cellphones, cash, and jewellery,” she said.
Nyuswa said in an incident that occurred on September 8, 2021 in Makoko Trust outside KaBokweni, Silinda together with his unknown accomplices entered a church building armed and found a group of ladies counting money for their burial society.
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“They took the money and cellphones and fled the scene. On May 8, 2022, the offender with unknown accomplices broke into a house with three occupants in Clau-Clau. They fired shots that wounded a female victim in the stomach and took cellphones. The victim survived. However, another victim was fatally shot when he tried to retaliate to the intruders during the robbery.
They further forced the third victim into a vehicle that was parked outside the yard and drove with him to his parental home, where they demanded cellphones and a cash amount of R1 000 before they fled.”
Nyuswa said the police found Silinda in possession of some of the victims’ cellphones and he was also identified as one of the intruders that broke into the house in Clau-Clau.
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Silinda was further declared unfit to possess a firearm in terms of the Firearms Control Act 60 of 2 000.
