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GRIM REAPER: Pamela Selani in court during her sentencing
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A mother has been given three life sentences for killing her two lovers and teenage son, then burying all of them in a shallow grave in her yard.
In 2016, Pamela Selani killed her boyfriend Michael Tshangisa after she alleged that he had infected her with HIV. She beat him to death with a hammer, then buried him in a shallow grave in her yard in Olievenhoutbosch, Centurion. When people asked where Tshangisa was, Selani, 47, said he had gone to the Eastern Cape.
Shortly afterward, Gift Phiri, the other boyfriend she had been cheating on Tshangisa with, moved into her house. However, the following year in 2017, Selani killed Phiri by poisoning him and drowning him in a dustbin filled with water, allegedly for assaulting her. She then buried Phiri in the same shallow grave where she had buried Tshangisa. She told everyone that Phiri had gone to live in Atteridgeville, west of Pretoria.
Selani in court
When Selani killed her two boyfriends, she did so in the presence of her three children, two boys and a girl. In 2018, Selani killed her firstborn son, Avile Jongwa. Avile, 17, who was a drug addict, had demanded money from Selani and threatened to tell the police about the two murders if she refused. However, Selani took a hammer and started assaulting Avile with it as her two other children watched. After Avile collapsed, Selani went outside and told her other son, who was 14 years old at the time, to remain with Avile. When she returned, the boy told her that Avile had been moving. Selani told the boy to go outside and get her a big rock. When the boy returned with the rock, Selani took it from him and crushed Avile’s skull with it. Both Selani and the boy took Avile’s body to the shallow grave and buried it with Tshangisa's and Phiri’s bodies. Selani then told everyone who asked about Avile that he had gone to Cape Town.
Sentencing her at the Pretoria high court on Monday, Judge Mokhine Mosopa said Selani was an evil human being who does not care about the rights of others. “The accused is not a suitable candidate for rehabilitation and this is confirmed by the investigating officer’s report. I find it strange that there can be a person who can kill two lovers and her son, and continue with her life like nothing happened,” he said. “The families of the two deceased are not traceable. I am of the view that they were not informed about the deaths and did not get the opportunity to bury their loved ones, and that they might still be out there looking for their loved ones.”
Mosopa said not only had Selani failed to show remorse for her crimes, but she had also blamed her son for the murders she herself committed. “The accused failed to show remorse and blames her son for the murders. It is also alleged that the accused fled from the Eastern Cape to Pretoria because she killed two people there, one of them being her own grandmother,” he said. The judge added that Selani was never prosecuted for those Eastern Cape murders due to a lack of evidence.
Mosopa also said it was unfortunate that the trial had no victim impact statements. He sentenced Selani to three life terms and five additional years for defeating the ends of justice. “The sentence will serve as punishment and teach you to refrain from such acts. It will make you a better person. Teach you to respect others’ dignity and security,” Masopa said.
Killer Mom in court
Speaking outside court after the sentencing, Selani’s cousin Tholo Sopam said she was relieved and happy about the sentence. Sopam told Sowetan that in 2020, Selani’s remaining son came running to her house saying his mother wanted to kill him. He was just in pants and wearing no shirt. “He later told me that he was seeing a dead person. We then took him to a sangoma (witchdoctor) because we thought he was going crazy. That’s where he confessed his mother’s doings.”
Both Sopam and the sangoma told the police, and Selani was arrested. “I feel happy now that she has been sentenced,” Sopam said with a sigh of relief. She said she was relieved now that her cousin had finally been sentenced as she had been fearing for her life, worried that Selani would kill her too. “I was scared that she would kill me because when the son came to my house to hide, he told me that he came to me because he wanted to be protected by whatever was protecting me because his mother always wanted to kill me,” she said.
When Selani was arrested, her son was arrested too, as his mother had told the police that he was the one who killed Phiri. However, the state withdrew the case against the son after he turned state witness.
First Published by Sowetan Live
