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Lucky Mabhobo Silinda, aged 28, has been handed a life sentence plus an additional 70 years in prison for a series of violent crimes committed between September 2021 and June 2022. The Mpumalanga Division of the High Court delivered the severe sentence on March 12th after Silinda entered into a plea agreement with state prosecutors.
According to Monica Nyuswa, the spokesperson for the National Prosecuting Authority in Mpumalanga, Silinda pleaded guilty to charges including housebreaking with intent to rob, robbery with aggravating circumstances, murder, and attempted murder. His crime spree took place across multiple locations such as Clau-Clau, Pienaar, KaBokweni, and Masoyi.
“In his plea, Silinda pleaded guilty to the crimes and was subsequently convicted of housebreaking with intent to rob, robbery with aggravating circumstances, murder, and attempted murder,” Nyuswa stated. “These crimes were committed between September 2021 and June 2022 in Clau-Clau, Pienaar, KaBokweni, and Masoyi. He would break into his victims’ houses, threaten them with a firearm, and rob them of their valuables like cellphones, cash, and jewellery.”
One particularly heinous incident occurred on September 8th, 2021, in Makoko Trust near KaBokweni, where Silinda and accomplices stormed a church building and robbed a group of women at gunpoint while they were counting money for their burial society.
In May 2022, Silinda shot and wounded a female victim in Clau-Clau during a home invasion robbery. Another male victim was fatally shot when he tried to retaliate against the intruders during the robbery. The surviving victims were able to identify Silinda, and police recovered some stolen cell phones from his possession.
In addition to the lengthy prison term, Silinda has been declared unfit to possess a firearm under South Africa’s Firearms Control Act.
