Johannesburg – Two men who set a spaza shop alight with people inside were sentenced to life imprisonment by the North Gauteng High Court, police said on Wednesday.

Colonel Ronel Otto said Mashegoana Maphile Magana, 29, and Klaas Samuel Tonga, 23, were sentenced on Tuesday to life for murder.

They were also each sentenced to 12 years imprisonment for attempted murder, 10 for common robbery, and eight years for arson. The sentences would run concurrently.

The two robbed Johannes Makola and his wife Jaivana Shabangu at their spaza shop in Ga-Mashegoana, Sekhukhune, in Limpopo in 2008.

“They took cash and groceries. One of the [men] poured petrol all over the shop and set it alight after locking the man and woman inside,” Otto said.

“Although they managed to break free from the shop, both sustained serious burn wounds and were taken to a hospital in Jane Furse for treatment.”

Shabangu died a few days later.

Limpopo police commissioner Lieutenant General Simon Mpembe welcomed the sentence.

– SAPA