Seshego man gets life in prison for murdering his ex-girlfriend
Lebogang Lamola's body was found lying in her bedroom on 24 October 2017 and had multiple stab wounds through her body
POLOKWANE – The Polokwane High Court on Thursday, 14 March sentenced Cuthbert Maputhi Manamela (32) to life in prison for the murder of his ex-girlfriend, Lebogang Lamola (23) in October 2017, as well as two years for theft and robbery.
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“The postmortem results showed that the deceased was stabbed seven times in her neck, a further seven times on her body, as well as on her legs and hands. I have been observing Manamela throughout the trial and his body language shows that he is a dishonest man and has no remorse for what he did,” Judge Ephraim Makgoba said during sentencing.
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Even though the accused’s lawyer, Sam Mamabolo described Manamela’s crime as a “crime of passion”, Judge Makgoba said the crime was premeditated as Manamela had written a suicide note to take his own life after Lamola had ended their relationship. The suicide note was read out in court during the sentencing.
Family members and friends of Lebogang broke down in tears.
“This man deserves to rot in jail, he was laughing throughout the trial and does not even feel bad or sorry for the family and for what he did. I hope that this is a lesson to all other men who are abusive, that such behaviour cannot and will not be be tolerated,” explained Tumelo Magombo, a friend of Lebogang during sentencing.
Lebogang’s older sister, Moloko Mokgehle said the court and ruling was fair and justice has been served.
“My sister will never walk the streets of our community again and what was most painful was seeing Cuthbert walking around in our community like he didn’t do anthing wrong, showing no remorse and instead giving us horrid looks. The trial was a constant reminder of our loss as a family, but we are now at peace and calmer knowing that at least the culprit will spend the rest of his life in jail, where he belongs,” she said.
