A PRIEST has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for the murder of his girlfriend and her grandchildren. 

THE family is thrilled with the 25-year sentence handed down to a 73-year-old pastor for the murder of his girlfriend and two girlfriends.

Themba Mkhize (73) was convicted of killing his girlfriend, Khanyisile Thule Sibiya (46), and his girlfriends, Nomcebo (8) and Asemahle (5), who were hacked to death with machetes in Hopewell, outside Pietermaritzburg, last year.

Mkhize, a so-called Presbyterian priest, was sentenced in the Pietermaritzburg High Court.

He pleaded guilty and said that on the day of the incident, on December 6, he was at a stokvel meeting and they were drinking alcohol. He said his girlfriend, whom they had met in November 2020, had visited him. His grandchildren also came to visit because they were following his girlfriend.

He said he came to them and bought some alcohol and drank it with his sister. He said they had an argument with a girl who wanted money, he grabbed her by the scruff of the neck, and then he got angry and took a machete and stabbed her.

He said the children woke up, saw that they had seen him kill their grandmother, and then killed himself by stabbing them with a machete. He said he fell asleep, woke up in the morning and forgot what he had done. He apologized to the family, saying he did not mean to kill them.

Dolly Zuma, Sibiya’s daughter, said yesterday that they were happy with the sentence but it was still difficult to forgive the killer.

“We were in court on Wednesday. As a family we are happy with the sentence we received because for 25 years each, the law has played its part. Or the mother and children will never return. We did not accept what he said as the cause of his death, he said many things. He has been lying in court.

He apologized but we do not accept that because he was even secretly convicted and who arrested him because his mother’s body was found hidden by the toilet outside the house. We are still orphans, ”said Zuma.

Mkhize was sentenced to 25 years for killing his girlfriend but asked to be reduced to 15 years. Two children, sentenced to 25 years each. He will serve 25 years in prison as the sentences follow