Paul Thabang Khumalo, who murdered the station commissioner at Diepkloof police station in Soweto in May 2002, was sentenced to life imprisonment plus 27 years in the Johannesburg High Court on Friday.
Sentencing Khumalo for the May 11 2002 murder, the attempted murder of two other people on the scene, escaping, illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition, Judge Geraldine Borchers said Khumalo’s remorse was a sham.
He is a violent man who should be removed from society, she said.
The murder of police officers and prison warders is prevalent in South Africa and the court views Khumalo’s murder of an officer doing his duty as extremely serious, Borchers said.
Before his sentencing, Khumalo apologised to the family of Senior Superintendent Elias Mashau for depriving them of a breadwinner.
The prosecutor cross-examining Khumalo said his remorse was false and he should have received an ”Oscar for the crocodile tears” he shed while in the witness box testifying in mitigation of sentence on Thursday.
Khumalo had earlier claimed he had been surprised to find in his cell a gun hidden in a parcel from a visitor, and told the court he did not know how Mashau was killed, only that shots were fired in a ruckus that broke out when he pulled out the firearm.
Borchers found that Khumalo had obtained a gun to enable him to escape.
”He knew that he might kill or injure people, but continued with his plan,” she said, adding he should have foreseen this could happen when shots were fired during the escape.
At the time, Mashau was in the cells to count prisoners and hear if there were any complaints.
He was struck by three of the four shots fired in the cell, Borchers noted, while Inspector Sisa Ngqola and prisoner Mpumelelo Khumalo were wounded.
The public gallery was packed to capacity on Friday. There was also a strong police presence. — Sapa