Pretoria - The Ministry for Women, Children and People with Disabilities has welcomed the sentence handed down to Thozamile Taki by the Durban High Court for killing 13 women and dumping their bodies in KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape.
Taki was sentenced to life imprisonment for each of the 13 murders and 16 years for each of the 13 counts of robbery.
The sentence - totaling 13 life and 208 years imprisonment running concurrently - has been described by the minister as "a firm sentence that is equal to atrocities and vicious nature of the crime committed against women."
"The sentence demonstrates the commitment within the criminal justice system to act firmly against perpetrators of gender based violence. We commend the investigating team and prosecutors for the sterling work done to ensure successful conviction in this case and we urge them to continue with this great work in other cases of violence against women," said the ministry.
The ministry also commended Judge Ndlovu's for the sentence, and said there should be no consideration for parole for Taki.
Taki exploited women who were looking for jobs, robbing them of their belongings and killing them in an extremely violent manner.
Many of their bodies were found in an advance state of decomposition in the sugarcane and tea plantations of Umzinto in KwaZulu-Natal and Port Saint Johns in the Eastern Cape.
The ministry noted that Taki showed no remorse while listening to his sentence. Instead, he was arguing against the court proceedings and demanding that his conviction be taken for review first before sentencing.
"We appreciate that Judge Ndlovu noted this lack of remorse including the fact that Taki was laughing at relatives of the deceased who were crying due to the traumatic nature of the evidence that was being presented before the court on this matter," said the ministry.
