Bloemfontein court jails Mpho Moloi for life for Rocklands murder plot

The Free State High Court in Bloemfontein has sentenced Mpho Isaac Moloi to life imprisonment for the murder of Itumeleng Claudete Tlhapuletsa, who was shot and killed in Rocklands on the evening of Monday, 9 May 2022.

Moloi, 40, was found guilty on 17 June 2026 of murder and of conspiracy to commit murder under Section 18(2)(a) of the Riotous Assemblies Act, 17 of 1956. The murder conviction was read with Section 51(1) part 1(a) and (d) of Schedule 2 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 105 of 1997, as amended, which carries a prescribed minimum sentence.

He was sentenced on 11 September 2026 to 15 years for the conspiracy count and life imprisonment for the murder. The 15-year sentence will run concurrently with the life sentence, and he has been declared unfit to possess a firearm.

According to the South African Police Service, the investigation established that the killing followed a dispute over farmland. Moloi was linked to the conspiracy and the murder through analysis of cellphone data, including a phone he used while in prison in Bloemfontein and Brandfort.

The police account records that Tlhapuletsa’s killing was initially without a known motive, which emerged only as the investigation proceeded. A week after the murder, on 16 May 2022, police arrested two suspects who were impersonating a crime intelligence officer near the scene in Thabe Street, Rocklands. Thapelo Hendricks, also known as Skariota, and Khotso Vincent Motaung were found in possession of a.38 Special Rossi with one live round of ammunition.

Hendricks’s cellphone was examined by the Free State Cybercrime Unit, and that analysis produced the evidence that pointed to the dispute over farmland and to Moloi’s involvement.

Neither Hendricks nor Motaung stood trial. Motaung was shot dead in the Bloemspruit area on 15 March 2024, and Hendricks was shot dead in the Kopanong area on 30 June 2024.

The police statement does not record who was responsible for those two killings, and no information about them has been released in this statement.

This report is based on the South African Police Service media statement from the Office of the Provincial Commissioner for the Free State, which is a summary of the case and the outcome rather than the court record itself. Enquiries on the matter are directed to Lt Col Thabo Covane of the South African Police Service.

Source: South African Police Service (SAPS), Bloemfontein High Court finds Mpho Isaac Moloi guilty of conspiracy to commit murder and murder