Court clerk jailed for murder

2008-06-24 20:12

Pretoria - A Pretoria court clerk was jailed for 30 years on Tuesday for shooting dead the mother of two of his children.

Sentencing Mohlala Frank Rametsi, Acting Pretoria High Court Judge Peter Mabuse said Rametsi had sorted out his problems with a firearm.

Rametsi was convicted of murdering his wife Dimakatso Priscilla Mphasha in September 2006.

The couple lived apart after each obtained an interdict against the other - Rametsi to stop his wife from moving goods out of their house and she to stop him from assaulting her.

They were due to go to the Pretoria North Magistrate's Court, where Rametsi worked as an administrative clerk, to contest the interdicts on the day of the crime.

The judge said Rametsi certainly did not want to appear in the court where he worked in front of his colleagues.

As a justice department official, he knew about the seriousness of the offences he had committed.

Mabuse said there was evidence that Rametsi had not possessed a firearm and the court could only conclude that he had obtained a firearm from somewhere specifically to confront his wife that day.

The court accepted the evidence of an eyewitness, who said Rametsi had arrived at his sister-in-law's house in Mamelodi, where his wife and children were staying at the time, with a firearm.

Rametsi had fired several shots at his wife, who died at the scene of a gunshot wound to the head.

The judge sentenced Rametsi to 25 years imprisonment on the murder charge and a further five years effective imprisonment for illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition.

- SAPA