South African man who killed his mother, chopped her body into pieces, sentenced to indefinite imprisonment

A South African man who stabbed his 73-year-old mother to death and then chopped up her body, claiming the voices in his head made him do it, has been declared a dangerous criminal and sentenced to indefinite imprisonment.

Judge Cassim Sardiwalla on Friday sentenced Kitiji John Mathe, 40, to indefinite imprisonment for the gruesome April 2017 murder of his mother Makanana at their house in Mamelodi East.

He ordered that Mathe must be brought before the court again after 25 years for the re-determination of his sentence.

Mathe stabbed his mother in the neck and then mutilated her body by decapitating her, before removing all of her internal organs, her genitalia, severing both rib cages from the sternum and removing her wrists, ankles and right hand. He placed her body on her bed and her entrails in a bucket.

“This is not human behaviour. It’s not even animal behaviour,” the Judge said.

Mathe claimed he had a good relationship with his mother but was under stress from the voices in his head because of the effect of rat poison he drank in an attempt to kill himself, but a panel of experts found that he was not suffering from any mental illness and was fit to stand trial.

When his sister Rosina asked him where their mother was because she could not reach her, he said she was cleaning the bathroom and could not come to the phone.

When his cousin came to check on her, Mathe was busy mopping the floor and told her his mother had gone to visit a friend.

When she could not find his mother she returned to the house, only to find it locked. Mathe’s sister eventually broke open the door and discovered her mother’s mutilated body on the bed.

His sister, although clearly still traumatized by her mother’s gruesome murder at the hands of her own brother, testified that she had forgiven him.