Pastor gets life for shooting businesswoman to death

A Limpopo judge has described a pastor who murdered a businesswoman and then tried to mislead police as to who the murderer was as an evil man who hides behind the pulpit as well as a wolf disguised in a sheep skin.

Ngwako Elvis Selowa-Makhotoka, a businessman and a pastor at Jesus Christ Grace Ministries in Kuranta village, Bolobedu, pretended that he had car problems, and when 42-year-old Thabiso Lethube Masie got out of her vehicle to help him, she was met with a hail of bullets.

The 31-year-old man then went on the run for two months before he was arrested.

Slapping him with a life sentence in the Polokwane High Court on Thursday, Judge Maake Francis Kganyago said Selowa-Makhotoka knew Masie very well and killed her after carefully planning and executing her murder.

On August 7 2021, Selowa-Makhotoka and his friend went to a tavern to buy some beers. 

According to spokesperson for the Limpopo National Prosecuting Authority, Mashudu Malabi-Dzhangi, on their return to Selowa-Makhotoka’s home he told his friend that he had a job to do.

At the time, Selowa-Makhotoka had a gun on him, she said.

Malabi-Dzhangi said Selowa-Makhotoka knew that Masie would be passing by very soon, so he stopped his car, got out and pretended that their vehicle had a mechanical failure.

Masie later drove by and came across Selowa-Makhotoka and his friend pretending  that their car had broken down and needed assistance.

“Selowa-Makhotoka and Masie knew each other very well. Masie stopped her car and alighted to find out if  Selowa-Makhotoka was not encountering any challenges with his car and that's when he shot her five times.

“After shooting the deceased, Selowa-Makhotoka fled the scene. In an attempt to conceal his deeds he instructed his friend to mislead the police about the identity of the person who shot her and to clean up the deceased’s vehicle to eliminate possible fingerprints and gun residue using methylated spirit." 

Masie was rushed to hospital where she later succumbed to her injuries while Selowa-Makhotoka disappeared. He was on the run for two months until he was arrested at a filling station near Polokwane. 

During the trial, his friend turned into a Section 204 state witness and testified against him.

Selowa-Makhotoka was later found guilty of murder, illegal possession of firearm, possession of ammunition and attempt to defeat the administration of justice.

In sentencing him, Kganyago said Masie was killed “by a person whom she trusted”.

He also said Selowa-Makhotoka was “an evil man who hides behind a pulpit, a wolf who disguised himself in a sheep skin". 

“The murder of the deceased was carefully planned and executed and Selowa-Makhotoka had not shown remorse for his actions.

While Selowa-Makhotoka never disclosed why he killed Masie, it is believed that her murder could have been a hit as she was a businesswoman.