Mother flays 'lenient' prison term

The mother of a 24-year-old man who was decapitated and had his limbs severed by his friend is disappointed with the 15-year jail term that his killer received.

Molly Ngema sobbed outside the South Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg yesterday after Siphamandla Gamede, 25, was sentenced to 15 years in prison for the murder of her son Nathi Ngema.

He was sentenced to a further two years for attempting to defeat the ends of justice after he severed Nathi's limbs and threw them in a dust bin.

Gamede also burned the deceased's body in a bid to get rid of the evidence at a flat they shared in Roodepoort.

Gamede killed Nathi after alleging that his friend attacked him with a knife in January.

"The sentence is an insult to us. My son was an angel and he had a bright future ahead of him," Ngema said.

"He had never been in a fight before the one that led to his murder. Even today, we still don't know why he [Gamede] killed Nathi."

She described her son as a respectful young man who was a qualified quantity surveyor and had graduated with a B-Tech diploma at the University of Johannesburg.

"But it's okay. What is done is done. The court saw it fit to hand him down this sentence and we have to live with it."

Ngema added that she was still traumatised by the state of her son's body when it was discovered.

"I had to buy bandages to put together his body so that we could have a dignified funeral for him. Even the state he was in at the mortuary was heartbreaking," said an emotional Ngema.

According to the indictment, Gamede alleged that he killed Nathi in self-defence after he accessed the deceased's foreign exchange account and traded with it.

He pleaded guilty to murdering Nathi and attempting to get rid of his body.

Judge Mahommed Ismail described the murder as a barbaric, brutal, horrific and a cruel betrayal of trust between Gamede and the family of the deceased.

Despite this, Ismail sentenced Gamede to 15 years because he pleaded guilty to the charges.

"There was no reason to kill [the] deceased despite you stating that the deceased was the initial attacker. You disarmed him, and then used the knife to kill him. When you stabbed him, he posed no threat to you," Ismail said.