Five Terms Life Imprisonment for Convicted Murderer

Deon Chonco Mathonsi, a 29-year-old convicted murderer, was sentenced to five terms of life imprisonment by the Pietermaritzburg High Court on Monday, 26 January 2026. This after he was found guilty of the murder of five people which happened in April 2023. The court also sentenced Mathonsi to a further 15 years in jail for his guilty verdict on a charge of robbery with aggravating circumstances. On the evening of 8 April 2023, Mathonsi and his two accomplices stormed into a homestead at Gobhogobho location in Bulwer and shot five men. Four of them were declared dead at the scene and the fifth one succumbed to his injuries in hospital. Mathonsi and his crew also robbed the women who were there of an undisclosed amount of money before fleeing from the scene. The KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Murder and Robbery Unit detectives combed the scene for clues and the search for the suspects began. Mathonsi was traced and arrested a little later on and since his arrest, investigators successfully opposed his several bail applications until Monday, 26 January 2026 when he was sentenced. The court also declared Mathonsi unfit to possess a firearm. The search for Mathonsi’s accomplices will never stop until they are all brought to justice.