JOHANNESBURG - A SOUTH African court on Friday sentenced a white youth to 169 years for shooting and killing four black people including a baby and a 10-year-old boy in a northwestern farming town, a report said.
Swartruggens Johan Nel, 18, randomly opened fire on people in the Skierlik black informal settlement near his family farm in January, killing four and injuring 11.
Nel sat stone-faced as Mmabatho High Court Judge Ronald Hendricks sentenced him to four life terms without parole, South African Talk Radio 702 reported.
The sentences will run consecutively.
Passing sentence, the judge said there was no place for racially motivated crimes in the democratic South Africa.
During the trial it emerged that Nel's action were motivated by his fears that his family would be attacked by black people.
His shooting spree shocked a nation still recovering from the racially divisive whites only rule which ended in 1994.
He was found to be fit to stand trial after undergoing psychiatric evaluation and pled guilty to 17 charges. -- AFP
