Mantha Stephan Carl

Age 64. On the early morning of Sunday, October 21, 2007, sixty-four-year-old Stephan Mantha was ambushed at approximately 07:00 at the main entrance gate of the Kameeldrift smallholding where he lived in Pretoria, Gauteng. A group of unidentified attackers confronted him as he approached the gate, launching a sudden and violent assault. The assailants overpowered him, inflicting severe physical trauma, and dragged his body across the premises of the property. Investigation details confirmed that the cause of death was suffocation sustained during the incident. His body was discovered on the smallholding later that day by a friend, who immediately alerted emergency services and local law enforcement. Hlazo was convicted of Mantha’s murder on circumstantial evidence. The court heard that Mantha’s Volkswagen Beetle was found in the possession of a member of Hlazo’s family, and Hlazo’s girlfriend testified that he had brought the vehicle there. Reports state that Mantha died from suffocation after tape was wound tightly around his neck. In January 2015, the North Gauteng High Court sentenced Hlazo to an effective 25 years’ imprisonment. The court did not find that the attack had been pre-planned.