Southern African men sentenced to prison for fatal violence

In separate legal proceedings in Southern Africa, two men have received significant prison sentences for fatal acts of violence.

In South Africa, 49-year-old Lucas Kgosi Mmakgathi was sentenced to 25 years of direct imprisonment by the Madikwe Regional Court for the murder of his two-year-old son. The incident occurred in May 2024 at Siga Village, where Mmakgathi strangled the child with a shoelace. The court also declared him unfit to possess a firearm and stipulated that he cannot be released on parole without permission from the deceased's family.

In Namibia, 29-year-old Jacobus Gawaseb was sentenced to 22 years in prison by the High Court for the murder of his pregnant girlfriend, Fransiska Naobes. Gawaseb admitted to assaulting Naobes with his fists and a knobkierie in the Epako area of Gobabis in March 2023. Naobes died from head injuries, and her premature baby subsequently died due to malnutrition. Judge Dinnah Usiku noted that the sentence serves as a response to widespread public outrage regarding domestic murders.