People were captivated this year by courtroom dramas that rivaled the best any scriptwriter could concoct, as plots unraveled and evidence proved to be the gift that kept on giving.
It also resulted in a number of harsh sentences being imposed by the courts for a variety of offenses.
One that drew attention was that of Nomia Ndlovu, a former police officer who was sentenced to six life terms in November for a string of murders she orchestrated fueled by greed.
The 46-year-old woman was found guilty of plotting the murders of her partner and five family members in order to collect life insurance payouts.
Ndlovu was also found guilty of inciting the murder of her sister, Joyce, and her five children, but they escaped her murderous plans.
Her killing spree began in 2012 and ended in 2018, when she was apprehended after the hitman she hired to burn her sister and children alive in their Bushbuckridge home tipped off police, launching an undercover police sting operation. While Ndlovu's case took several years from arrest to conviction, a man who killed and decapitated his girlfriend in 2019 pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 23 years in prison.
On April 25, 2019, Elhadji Adama Kebe, 33, stabbed Sibongile Zenzile, 28, more than ten times in the Kempton Park flat they shared. He also severed her head and stored it in their refrigerator.
The next day, Kebe was arrested at the couple's shop.
Instead of the prescribed minimum sentence of life imprisonment for this murder, the high court in Johannesburg sentenced him to the lesser sentence on May 18 after finding mitigating factors.
These included the fact that Kebe was a first-time offender who had expressed remorse, had spent two years in prison awaiting trial, had pleaded guilty, and had the potential for rehabilitation.
Another partner who murdered her husband also pleaded guilty rather than wasting the court's time.
Suretha Brits, 31, pleaded guilty to murder and robbery with aggravating circumstances in November after being charged with the murder of her hotelier husband Leon, 41.
The British were sentenced to a total of 25 years in prison by the Upington High Court.
On October 7, 2020, a body was discovered floating in a swimming pool at one of the couple's properties in Pofadder. He'd been stabbed multiple times. The premises was robbed of valuables such as firearms, diamonds, and cash.
Another case that shocked the country this year also resulted in a quick conviction and sentence.
In August, the dismembered body of Nosicelo Mtebeni, a 23-year-old fourth-year LLB student at the University of Fort Hare, was discovered in a suitcase in East London.
In November, her boyfriend, Alutha Pasile, 25, pleaded guilty in the East London High Court. He received a 25-year prison sentence.
The court also did not show mercy to a security officer who killed a member of the public, Sibusiso Amos, in Vosloorus in March 2020 while enforcing level 5 lockdown regulations on Ekurhuleni Metro Police Department (EMPD) officers.
Siphiwe Ndlovu, a former police officer who was working as a security guard at the time, was sentenced to 25 years in prison for the murder and five years for each of three counts of attempted murder in December by the Johannesburg High Court.
Amos was fatally shot inside his home during an altercation with EMPD officers who were pursuing patrons from a nearby tavern.
There have also been cases where elders who raped their young relatives received harsh sentences from the courts.
In one such case, a 63-year-old man from Kwambonambi was sentenced to life in prison in November by the Empangeni regional court after being convicted of raping his 15-year-old granddaughter.
The girl and her mother lived at the man's homestead with their extended family. He was the maternal grandfather of the girl.
Between 2018 and 2020, he raped her four times.
In another case, an 81-year-old man from Balfour in Mpumalanga was sentenced to 15 years in prison this month for raping a six-year-old girl in 2004.
Rhino poachers had their cell doors slammed on them as well, with the harshest sentence handed down in October in the Mogwase regional court in North West, where Mozambican nationals Arlindo Muhlanga, Adam Hlongwane, and Gamula Chauke were sentenced to 35 years in prison each.
They were arrested in 2018 after three white rhino cows were poached and dehorned in the Pilanesberg Game Reserve.
In May, a Skukuza regional court sentenced former SANParks ranger Phineas Dinda and his co-accused to 16 years in prison for rhino poaching in the Kruger National Park in 2019.
In comparison to these heinous crimes, stealing a pair of leggings worth R798 may appear insignificant, but the Pretoria High Court gave Desiree Williams, 57, no leeway.
The court said her numerous convictions since 1981 "showed no sentence has rehabilitated or deterred her." She was sentenced to ten years in prison.
