(CNN) A man convicted of the rape and murder of South African student at a post office has been handed three life sentences in a case that has come to symbolize the casual violence women in South Africa face.

In August this year, Luyanda Botha, raped and murdered 19-year-old student Uyinene Mrwetyana when she went to pick up a parcel at the Cape Town post office where he worked.

Earlier in the month, she had visited the post office to inquire about her parcel and Botha contacted her a few weeks later on August 24 to let her know it had arrived.

When an unsuspecting Mrwetyana turned up, Botha raped and attacked her, South Africa's National Prosecuting Authority spokesman Eric Ntabazalila said.

"He raped her but she fought back. He bludgeoned her with a heavy object on the head and then locked her body up in a post office safe," Ntabazalila said in a statement on Friday.