TWO white men were on Monday sentenced to 12 and four years in prison for beating to death a black priest last year in a racist attack in Mpumulanga. Zionist Christian Church pastor Malebo Serama, (52) was killed and two of his colleagues were severely assaulted when a group of up to 20 white men attacked them near Marble Hall, northeast of Pretoria, last September. The circuit court in Middleburg sentenced Martinus Erasmus to 12 years in jail for culpable homicide. Phillip Maritz was sentenced to four years in prison, with another two years suspended, or a R20000 fine, for assault. Murder charges against them and three others were dropped last week. The attackers had apparently been on their way home from a pub in the early hours of the morning when they came across Serama, who was guiding two buses of worshippers to the church’s headquarters for a religious festival. They insulted Serama and his colleagues before beating and “trampling” on them, a witness said in reports at the time.