Man pleads guilty to killing his mother over money for alcohol

A 41-year-old Gqeberha man has been sentenced to an effective 20 years behind bars after admitting to beating his mother to death after she refused to give him money to buy alcohol.

Sibongile France entered a plea agreement with the state yesterday and admitted to the murder on June 23 last year of his 67-year-old mother, Nela Ntombozana Angelina, at her Walmer Township home.

France had a protection order against him as he had previously been violent towards his mother.

In his plea, read out in court by his Legal Aid SA-appointed lawyer, advocate Johan van der Spuy, he said he had on several occasions contravened the conditions of the protection order while intoxicated.

France had been living in an informal structure erected on the property of his mother’s Bhabhatana Street home.

“The arrangement was that I would contribute to the household expenses,” he said.

“I spent too much money on alcohol and started neglecting my responsibilities.”

According to France, on the day of the incident he was not at work and had spent the morning drinking and socialising with friends.

He said he had run out of money and decided to go to his mother’s house to ask for money which he believed she owed him.

“I entered the main house in contravention of the protection order and I asked her for the money.

“She responded by saying she did not owe me anything.

“We started arguing and we ended up shouting at each other.

“I started getting aggressive as I normally do when I am intoxicated and it looked like she was getting scared.”

He said that during the argument his mother had taken a knife from her clothes and waved it at him, warning him to stay away.

“I grabbed my mother from behind and forced her to the ground.

“I got up and left my mother on the floor. I got hold of the knife and stabbed at her.

“I do not even know whether I struck her. “I got up from her and I saw a long plank in the room.

“I picked up the plank and hit her several blows over the head while she was still lying on the ground, not being any danger to myself.

“I left her on the ground, still in the kitchen area and stood around, contemplating what I had done.”

He said that after deciding to leave the house he had cleaned his mother’s blood off himself and left through the front door, locking it behind him.

“I wanted to give the key to one of the neighbours, but she declined to take it.

“There were quite a few people outside the house and [in the] yard and I then realised that the SAPS were on the scene as well.”

His mother was declared dead on the scene by paramedics. A postmortem report later determined the cause of death as blunt force trauma to the head and chest.

France was arrested at the scene and has been in custody since.

As per the agreement, France was sentenced to 17 years for murder and three for contravening the protection order.

No order was made by the court for the sentences to run concurrently, meaning France was effectively sentenced to 20 years.