A former Flying Squad member from SAPS in Welkom was sentenced in the Kroonstad Magistrates Court on Monday to 60 years for a double murder.
The 32-year-old Constable Diphaphang Mokwena was also sentenced to an additional 15 years for robbery.
Police Spokesperson Brigadier Motantsi Makhele says Mokwena and his three co-accused went to his aunt's house in Kroonstad on the 1st of October 2018 where he asked his nephew to accompany him to the shops.
His co-accused were left at the house and strangled his aunt, leaving her for dead.
Makhele says when the nephew was later dropped off back at his house he found his aunt still alive and phoned Mokwena for help.
He says it is then when all the accused returned to the house and slit both their throats.
They then stole a TV, DVD, phone and three blankets.
All three were arrested soon after the murders.
The second accused Martin Sebotoane Pule, 35, was sentenced that same month to 46 years in prison.
Brigadier Makhele says the third accused was poisoned and died during the trial and the case of the fourth accused is still continuing in the Kroonstad High Court.
Meanwhile, a former KwaZulu-Natal police sergeant stationed at the VIP protection unit in Pietermaritzburg was also handed a double life sentence on Monday for the murder of his former girlfriend and her new partner.
Thirty-nine-year-old Hlanganani Nxumalo was also handed five years for assault with intent, at the South Gauteng High Court.
In June last year, Nxumalo drove from KwaZulu-Natal to Alexandra Township in Johannesburg, where he shot and killed his former girlfriend and her new boyfriend.
