Cape Town — The Pretoria High Court has, for the second time in a week, sent out a strong message of zero tolerance when it comes to dealing with criminals.

Judge Khami Makhafola on Friday sentenced two former police officers and a reservist to life imprisonment for killing a suspect they had interrogated.

Even the 66-year-old Joachim Prinsloo's advanced age did not spare him the toughest sentence.

Prinsloo, Magiel Burger, 39, and Felokwane Goqo, 43, were earlier convicted of kidnapping Sandy Botomane and killing him.

All three were first offenders.

There was no direct evidence of how Botomane was killed, but his mutilated body was found a day after his disappearance on the N1 highway near Vanderbijlpark.

Several cars had driven over him by then. A post-mortem found that Botomane died of multiple injuries.

The State claimed that the three had fetched Botomane from his Atteridgeville home on April 23 2000 to question him about the disappearance of R1,2-million from Putco in Marabastad.

The 24-year-old Botomane was employed by Putco at the time and he was a suspect in the theft.

Putco had hired a private investigating company, Associated Intelligence Network (AIN), to investigate the theft. Former accused Henry Beukes, who worked for AIN, was acquitted on all the charges.

The security firm identified Botomane and Titus Seboka as possible suspects.

Both were ticket sellers at Putco.

The plan was to nab Seboka on an outstanding warrant in a different case and then question him on the missing money, the accused said.

They claimed that on the night they fetched Botomane at his house it was simply for him to show them where Seboka lived.

But Stella Motileng, Botomane's girlfriend, testified that the cops told her that they were taking him to the Atteridgeville police station for questioning. She said when she looked for him the next day, they could not find him anywhere.

Makhafola said that based on the circumstantial evidence against the three, it was clear that they were with Botomane to the end.

They were the last people to have seen him and should be held accountable for his death, he said.

The judge also found that they had a common purpose in murdering him.

The three persisted that they were innocent, claiming Botomane had run away after pointing out Seboka's home in Sebokeng.

Makhafola said crime in the country was totally out of hand.

People lay in their beds with their eyes open in fear of being attacked. The incidence of murder was threatening the constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens.

He warned criminals that the courts would send out a clear message that it would no longer tolerate lawlessness.

Makhafola granted the three men leave to appeal against their convictions and sentences before the Supreme Court of Appeal. It was argued that the court had to pronounce on convictions based purely on circumstantial evidence.