Two men who were found guilty of murdering a British national and using a blowtorch to torture her husband, have been sentenced to an effective 37 years behind bars.
On Thursday, the Mpumalanga High Court in Breyten sentenced Meshak Nkosinathi Yika, 28, and his brother, Themba William Yika, 38, from Bergendal farm, near Belfast.
Their co-accused, Lucas Makua, died after he was found guilty.
On 18 February 2017, the three men broke into a farmhouse in Dullstroom, where they found Susan Deborah Howarth, 64, and her husband Robert Lynn, 66, asleep in their bedroom.
Howarth was shot in the head and her husband was shot in the neck before he was dragged to the lounge, where the accused demanded money.
National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson Monica Nyuswa said:
They continued to assault the complainant until he opened the safe and took [out] an amount of R320, two cellphones and a camera.
"They further burnt him with blowtorch several times on his body, [and] as a result, he gave them his bank card and the PIN...[in] the hope that they would leave him."
Instead, the accused covered his face with a plastic bag and forced him and Howarth, who was still alive at that point, into their van. They later dumped the couple in a veld alongside a road.