The North West High Court has sentenced 21-year-old Xander Bylsma to two life terms for killing two teenage girls at the hostel of Hoërskool Stella in Mahikeng.
Bylsma was 19 at the time that he strangled 16-year-old Marna Engelbrecht and 17-year-old Sharnelle Hough, in the school's hostel.
Their bodies were found hanging on the school’s dormitory premises by a matron at the school.
Hough was found hanging from the staircase balustrade, whilst Engelbrecht was found in an upstairs bathroom.
In passing sentence on Friday morning, Judge Ronald Hendricks said gender-based violence was a scourge in the country which needed to be rooted out.
"The only way that it can be stopped is to impose harsher sentences," he said.
Judge Hendricks said that the violence "perpetrated by men against women is also very rife in the area of jurisdiction of this court and when an offence or offences are prevalent, courts are called upon to impose stiffer sentences in order to curb that particular offence or offences."
