15 years imprisonment for man who murdered his cop girlfriend

The 31-year-old man who murdered his girlfriend, who was a police officer, will serve 15 years behind bars, the Bethlehem Magistrate Court ruled on Friday, June 3.

Moscow Yika, appeared before the Bethlehem Magistrates’ Court last week, where he was convicted on charges of murder.

“The convict, took the deceased, Mita Malinga, 30, from the house where she was with her friends. After half an hour the deceased called her friend informing them that Yika is assaulting her and the call was cut off,” said Free State Hawks spokesperson Christopher Singo.

“The friends then went out to search for them, they then discovered the body of the deceased in the early hours of Saturday, 21 August 2021 inside the swimming pool in Reitz.

“The deceased was a police official at the time of the incident working at the local Police station in Reitz, the matter was reported to the Police and Yika was arrested the same morning by the local Police in Reitz,” Singo detailed further.

Singo said the case was then handed over to the Hawks’ Serious Organised Crime Investigation team based in Bethlehem for further investigation, this led to the Magistrate Court’s heavy sentencing last week.

Free State Provincial head, general Mokgadi Bokaba, commended the job done by the local police station and the private investigators to ensure a complete chain of custody in the matter which led to a conviction being secured.