The Alberton husband and wife who brutalised their two-year-old daughter until her death were sentenced to life in prison by the Johannesburg high court on Thursday.
The parents are not being named in full to protect the identity of their other child.
The mother was convicted of Chane's murder and the father of being an accessory to murder. The cause of death was determined to be due to pressure to the neck structures consistent with throttling. The toddler also had multiple other injuries.
Belinda, 30, was sentenced to life imprisonment for murder, another life term for rape, 10 years for child abuse, and five years for being an accessory to child abuse. Stefanus, 41, was sentenced to life imprisonment for rape, 10 years for being accessory to murder and 10 years for child abuse. Judge Mokate Noko ordered that the sentences run concurrently.
The pair sexually abused and raped Chane before her death in May 2021 at their home in Alberton.
According to the indictment, she and a brother were removed from their parents in December 2018 amid concerns of abuse. But in November 2020, they were returned to them after a children's court order.
When Chane was placed back home, she was assaulted and raped. The state said her parents would on occasion hit her body against a cupboard or throw her body against the cupboard, throw her body against a wall, feed her until she vomited before forcing her to eat her vomit, and her body was rubbed with faeces.
The court heard the parents were high on drugs before Chane's death.
During sentencing, Noko said the charges the parents were convicted of were serious and their placing blame on drugs was a lame excuse.
“They had enough chance to quit drugs even after their children were removed from them. However, the couple continued with their drugs upon their children's return to their care by social workers.”
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