A man who killed an eight-year-old boy by slitting his throat in Kenhardt in the Northern Cape was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Gladwin Steenkamp killed the boy on November 30, 2022.
Northern Cape spokesperson, Captain Nelis Prins, said Steenkamp assaulted his girlfriend on November 29.
The girlfriend and her mother went to the police to open a case of assault. Steenkamp went to his girlfriend's house, where he slit her 10-year-old brother's throat.
After slitting the boy's throat, Steenkamp covered him in a duvet and hid him under a bed.
The boy's mother later found him.
Steenkamp was sentenced to life imprisonment for murder and an additional 14 years for the assault of his girlfriend.
Captain Prins said the Northern Cape provincial commissioner of the police, Lieutenant General Koliswa Otola, welcomed the lifelong prison sentence handed down to Steenkamp.
In a separate incident, Lieutenant Colonel Sergio Kock said an 18-year-old man was arrested for house robbery and attempted murder after he reportedly overpowered a 66-year-old woman at her farm on Saturday.
The elderly woman was severely assaulted and stabbed in the face and head.
The man fled the scene with two cellphones, vehicle keys, binoculars, alcohol and a cooler box.
He reportedly entered the farm house near Marydale under the pretence of asking for water from the elderly woman.
He was traced and arrested on a farm near Vanwyksvlei on Monday. The police recovered the stolen property.
"The suspect is charged with house robbery and attempted murder and will appear in court soon," Kock said.
IOL