Grandmother waits for grandchildren after killers of son and daughter-in-law sentenced to
Two men convicted for killing couple on Johannesburg highway, leaving grandchildren orphaned.
Maletsatsi Maroga has not seen her grandchildren since March 2022. That is the quiet, enduring wound beneath a verdict that sent two men to prison for life.
The Pretoria High Court convicted Rassie Nkuna and Jacob Chego, a former police officer, for the murders of Lucky and Sabeliwe Mogoshoa. The couple was killed near the Etwatwa off-ramp on the N12 highway in Ekurhuleni. Sabeliwe was six months pregnant. Their eight-year-old son and one-year-old daughter were there when it happened.
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The two men acted together to lure the couple and kill them for their BMW, according to court proceedings. Judge Samuel Makamu described the crime as particularly brutal and disgraceful.
Maletsatsi, Lucky’s mother, said she was satisfied with the verdict. Her relief, though, is shadowed by the separation the killings forced on her family. The grandchildren she has not seen since their parents were murdered now face childhoods shaped by absence and trauma. Sabeliwe’s mother, Rachel Zwane, also spoke after sentencing, thanking the media whose sustained attention helped keep pressure on authorities through the investigation and trial.
What changed for these two women is not the grief, which remains, but the knowledge that the men responsible will not walk free.
Nkuna’s criminal record extends well beyond this case. He is already serving a life sentence for the murders of his girlfriend, Pretty Mazibuko, and her sister, Marcia Mazibuko. He is scheduled to stand trial again in 2027, this time in connection with the murder of Hillary Gardi. The pattern across his offenses is one of repeated, serious violence.
Chego, by contrast, has contested every step of the outcome. After sentencing, he filed an application seeking leave to appeal both his conviction and sentence. The Pretoria High Court rejected it. He was also denied bail while pursuing a further application to the Supreme Court of Appeal. His legal options are now narrow.
For the Mogoshoa children, no sentence restores a mother or a father, or the sibling who never drew a first breath. Their grandmothers carry that reality daily. The court has delivered accountability. The harder work, of helping two young children understand what happened on that highway, belongs to the family.
Whether the children will one day be reunited with Maletsatsi remains an open question, and perhaps the most human one this case leaves behind.
Q&A
How long has Maletsatsi Maroga been separated from her grandchildren?
Since March 2022, when her son Lucky and daughter-in-law Sabeliwe were murdered, nearly three years of separation.
What were the ages of the Mogoshoa children when their parents were killed?
Their eight-year-old son and one-year-old daughter were present at the scene of the murders on the N12 highway.
What was the motive for the murders of Lucky and Sabeliwe Mogoshoa?
The two men lured and killed the couple to steal their BMW, according to court proceedings.
What is Rassie Nkuna's criminal history beyond this case?
He is already serving a life sentence for the murders of his girlfriend Pretty Mazibuko and her sister Marcia Mazibuko, and is scheduled to stand trial in 2027 for the murder of Hillary Gardi.