Mpumalanga Community Safety, Security and Liaison MEC Pat Ngomane has commended the Criminal Justice cluster for sentencing of four suspects involved in attacking farm dwellers and rape cases, saying that the conviction of the suspects is a huge relief to the victims and survivors of their evil deeds.
The MEC says he believes the successful conviction of crime suspects augers well for the Criminal Justice System and it also serves as a motivation for the police to work even harder in order to bring criminals to justice.
He explains that it further serves as a deterrent to would be criminals that government and communities are intolerant to criminality. Ngomane adds that those who torture communities must be harshly punished.
According to a police report, two suspects Kansas Mintoor (34) and Andries Funwako Masilela Nkabinde (47) were sentenced on 15 August 2018, by the Evander Regional Court for two counts of robbery with aggravating circumstances (farm attack), attempted murder, two counts of kidnapping, three counts of unlawful possession of firearm as well as ammunition.
They shot a 55 year old farmer while the farmer and his wife were entering their property. The couple was ambushed while they were coming from the airport entering their house. They were held at gunpoint immediately after alighting from their vehicle. A struggle ensued between the man and the attackers resulting in a shot going off and hitting the victim.
The suspects went inside the house, ransacked it and robbed the victims of firearms, laptops as well as belongings before fleeing the scene in the victims’ bakkie. They took the victims along with them. The bakkie was found abandoned near a local filling station shortly after the victims had been dumped along the road. The suspects were subsequently arrested and had been kept in custody ever since.
Mintoor and Nkabinde were each sentenced to 20 years for each robbery which will run concurrently, 15 years for attempted murder of which five years of it will run concurrently with the above mentioned sentences. For the unlawful possession of firearms and ammunition, they were granted five and three years each, respectively that will run concurrently. They were also sentenced to three years for each charge of kidnapping which will also run concurrently. Each of the accused will serve an effective 38 years in prison.
In two other cases of which sentences were passed on the same day by the North Gauteng High Court sitting in Barberton and the Nelspruit Regional Court. On Friday, 24 August 2018, the North Gauteng High Court sentenced Raphael Marathon Livanje (24) to 93 years imprisonment on 12 charges, five counts of rape, two counts of robbery with aggravating circumstances, three counts of housebreaking and two counts of theft.
Livanje was granted 10 years each in each of the cases , seven years for each robbery and house breaking, five years for the theft of a firearm and three years for the theft of a cellphone. The court ordered that the robberies, housebreaking and the theft sentence run concurrently with two of the rape sentences. Therefore, Livanje will serve an effective thirty (30) years in prison.
On the last incident, the Nelspruit Regional Court sentenced Nkosinathi Sibusiso Ndzukula (25) to 15 years imprisonment for raping a 32 year old woman in 2014. Ndzukula was sentenced after the court heard how he sexually abused his victim. The victim was coming from hospital when Ndzukula accosted and dragged her to a nearby bush, where he raped her.
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Issued by Mpumalanga Department of Community Safety, Security and Liaison
Enquiries: Joseph Mabuza
Contacts: 013 766 1579
082 6781 450