Limpopo cop killer sentenced to life in prison for crime spree
The convicted felon shot and killed the SAPS constable and then used his uniform during the commission of other crimes, says the NPA.
LIMPOPO – The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) welcomed the hefty sentenced handed down to 41-year-old Bonginkosi Godfrey Lucky Ngobeni.
Ngobeni appeared in the Giyani Regional Court last week and was sentenced to life imprisonment for murder plus and additional five years for attempted murder, 15 years each on four counts of robbery with aggravating circumstances, one year for assault and two years impersonating a police officer, said Mashudu Malabi-Dzhangi the NPA’s regional spokesperson.
Between November 24 and 27 he terrorised the communities of Homu, Mageva and Xamfana villages in Giyani. In this period he shot and killed police constable Jonas Sevha Chabalala during a hijacking incident, Malabi-Dzhangi said.
“During the incident the officer, who was attached to the Tzaneen Uniform branch, was fatally shot and his girlfriend shot and injured. The constable’s uniform was also stolen,” she added.
She explained that the next day he robbed a person of their cellphone while wearing the uniform and committed a house robbery under the pretense that is is a police officer.
“During the house robbery he stole a firearm, a box of bullets, three mobile phones and R10 000 cash,” she said.
Ngobeni was eventually arrested on December 25 in Gauteng.
Malabi-Dzhangi says that in aggravation of the sentences, advocate Norman Makhubele argued that accused should be removed from society as he is not the candidate who can be rehabilitated. “He used the deceased vehicle to commit all these offences, and a firearm to harm all his victims, he said.
Makhubele said told the court that Ngobeni was not going to stop his evil deeds if he was not arrested, she added.
The court ordered all these sentences to run concurrently with the life sentence.
