Pretoria – Dimakatso Mametsa pleaded guilty to charges of murder, possession of an illegal firearm and a further charge of robbery with aggravating circumstances unrelated to the murder of Constable Baloyi. The Atterdgeville regional court accepted his guilty plea on 5 November 2015 and sentenced the accused to 13 years imprisonment for murder, 12 years imprisonment for robbery and 10 years for possession of unlicensed firearm.
Murder of a law enforcement officer when performing his or her functions carries a minimum of life sentence. In this this case it could not be established whether he was performing his functions when he was murdered hence a 13 year sentence was imposed.
The accused and an off-duty policeman argued in a taxi. The argument continued after they descended and the accused fired shots at deceased.
He pleaded guilty today in our court on the following charges:
The sentence for possession of unlicensed firearm will run concurrently with the sentence for robbery.
The effective sentence therefore is 25 YEARS.
The NPA welcomes the sentence and believes that it will deter those who target our law enforcement officials. We commend Betty Lerumo and the investigating officer for speedily finalizing the matter.
