By Libuseng Nyaka
QWAQWA – The long arm of the law finally caught up with a 41- year old man of Makwane in Qwaqwa, who escaped from custody 16 years ago; the fugitive was sentenced to two life sentences for the murder of two people on June 2,2021.
Thapelo Samuel Mokoena’s days of running came to a halt when police re-arrested him at Carletonville in Gauteng where he was working at Hlangeni mine in Driefontein and had set up a family.
His case stemmed from August 23,2004, when Mokoena alongside three people – co-accused who have since been sentenced – arrived at Danksbaarheid Farm in Bethlehem and brutally murdered Johanna Katherine Van Niekerk (79) and her gardener Tololo Elias Tsholo (43).
“They also attacked two domestic workers: one was missed by a bullet and the other was shot in the hip,” police spokesperson in the Free State Brigadier Motantsi Makhele said.
He said police arrested three people and were sentenced while Mokoena fled from police custody at Makwane on July 28, 2005.
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