NPA
A man who killed a defenceless elderly woman in a Mpumalanga old age home in 2018, has been jailed for life.
Forty-one-year-old Shaun Oosthuizen was sentenced in the High Court on Thursday for the murder and robbery of 85-year-old Henrietta Potgieter in the Macademia Old Age Home in Mbombela.
He pleaded guilty to the charges on Wednesday.
National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson, Monica Nyuswa, said Oosthuizen was charged together with Maryna Andrina Lin Mam (47) and John Du Plooy (28), but charges against the two were withdrawn due to insufficient evidence.
She said the court heard that on 8 July 2018, Oosthuizen travelled from Gauteng to the Old Age Home in Mbombela in an Opel Astra motor vehicle with a GP registration number.
“He entered the building and exited it, only to come back driving the same vehicle with the registration number removed at the back,” Nyuswa said.
She said he proceeded to the victim’s room where she was watching television.
“He then assaulted, tied, and strangled her. She died instantly. He further robbed the deceased an amount of R10.000 and fled the scene,” she said.
Nyuswa said Oosthuizen was tracked down and arrested five days later.
She said State Prosecutor, Advocate Vuyo Mkhulisi, told the court that Oosthuizen had pleaded guilty “because of the overwhelming evidence the state had against him”, which included CCTV footage of him exiting and returning with the vehicle.
The NPA said it welcomed the sentence and also condemned all forms of violence against women and children.
