Two men who shot and killed a two-year-old baby during a house robbery last year were sentenced to life imprisonment plus 20 years by the Johannesburg High Court on Friday, police said.
Steve Hlongwane (18) and George Nyangale (22) broke into a house in Lyndhurst on April 12 last year, said police spokesperson Inspector Hamilton Mazomba.
They shot Tshahai Obiekwe in the head when the child woke up crying.
”They demanded to know where the safe was and wanted other valuables. When the baby started to cry, she was silenced by a bullet in the head,” said Mazomba. ”Showing no remorse, the men continued to rob the family. They took a cellphone, laptop and DVD player.”
The baby and her mother were Nigerians visiting the country, according to a Talk Radio 702 report.
At the time, Gauteng police Commissioner Perumal Naidoo ordered his officers to ”turn the world upside down” to find the killers of the child.
Detectives at the Sandringham police station arrested Hlongwane shortly after the incident.
Nyangale was traced to the Johannesburg Prison where he was awaiting trial on another case, Mazomba said. — Sapa