A 27-year-old Port Elizabeth man has been sentenced to an effective 16 years in prison for a string of housebreakings across the city dating back to 2011.
Sizwe Jika, pleaded guilty to six counts of housebreaking and stealing items worth an estimated amount of more than R300 000 at the PE Magistrates Court on Tuesday.
His defence attorney also told the court that they would not be arguing in mitigation of sentence after the court ruled that Jika's behaviour was indicative of a habitual criminal.
Jika is also awaiting trial for the murder of three Port Elizabeth woman, including the young mother Kelly Bain, who was brutally killed whilst her one-month-old baby was.
Police spokesperson Colonel Priscilla Naidu said Jika's DNA also linked him to the 86-year-old Ann Smith's murder in May last year in Kamma Park.
Smit was brutally assaulted in her home and later died in hospital.
Jika, whilst in custody was also linked to the murder of the 83-year-old Ann Ferreira whose body was found in her house in Kuruman kloof.
Naidu says he will be back in court on the 19th of June where the three murder cases are expected to be centralised.
