The man accused of the brutal murder of 73-year-old Mariette Mouton in her Bredasdorp home has been reportedly linked to a previous murder charge – the killing of renowned landscape architect Beyers de Wet Theron in Napier – prompting renewed calls from Parliament for tougher sentencing laws.

The Mouton murder

Mariette Mouton was found dead inside her home in Bredasdorp on Monday 21 September, after her 81-year-old husband had been working in the garden. He went inside looking for her and discovered her body.

Police said access appeared to have been gained through an unlocked back door and that items were missing from the house. Preliminary information suggested she had been killed with a blunt object.

Bredasdorp police registered cases of murder and house robbery and launched an investigation.

ALSO READ: Man (32) arrested in Bredasdorp for elderly woman’s murder

Arrest and court appearance

Sabino Nel (32) was arrested on Tuesday 29 September, according to provincial police spokesperson Thembakazi Mdukana. He appeared in the Bredasdorp Magistrates’ Court on Thursday 1 October, and abandoned his bail application the following day, electing to remain in custody.

Stolen jewellery belonging to Mouton was subsequently discovered in Nel’s possession, linking him directly to the crime scene.

A prior murder charge

Reports revealed that Nel had previously been arrested in May 2025 in connection with the murder of 78-year-old Beyers de Wet Theron, a respected landscape architect who had relocated to Napier after his retirement in 2012.

In the Hermanus Times of 4 June 2025 the police confirmed that the then 31-year-old Nel was behind bars for an unrelated matter when he was charged with the house robbery and murder that took place in Plein Street, Napier on Sunday 4 May 2025.

“The suspect was arrested and formally charged on Tuesday 20 May,” the police reported in a statement. The suspect made his first appearance in connection with the house robbery and murder in the Bredasdorp Magistrates’ Court on Thursday 22 May. The case was postponed.

The quiet rural community was left stunned when news of Beyers de Wet Theron’s senseless murder became

known. The elderly man’s body was found with severe head injuries.

The disclosure that the same suspect now faces charges in a second killing has raised serious questions about how Nel came to be free to allegedly commit a further violent crime.

Ian Cameron: “A life sentence should mean life behind bars”

Ian Cameron, DA MP and chairperson of the National Assembly’s Portfolio Committee on Police, described the killing as “deeply disturbing” and called for fundamental changes to sentencing and parole legislation.

“There is something particularly barbaric about criminals preying on elderly people in their own homes,” Cameron said. “A place where Mrs Mouton should have been safest became the scene of her murder.”

He said the killing was part of a broader pattern: “Her killing comes amid an ongoing onslaught of violence against women and children across South Africa. Victims cannot simply become another set of names and numbers while violent criminals act with impunity.”

Cameron called for parole eligibility to be scrapped for the worst violent offenders. “Offenders convicted of the most serious violent crimes against women and children, particularly those who deliberately prey on vulnerable victims, should not be eligible for parole. For these crimes, a life sentence should mean life behind bars.”