A prison gang ”general”, who confessed to executing one of his ”soldiers” because he ”broke the rules” was sentenced to life in prison in the Pretoria High Court on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, Francois van Staden (39) strenuously objected to sentencing being postponed until Wednesday, and he asked Acting Judge Joseph Raulinga why he did not simply send him to jail for life and ”get it over with”.
On Wednesday, Raulinga said: ”Van Staden said it himself. He wants to go back to prison. I think the court can do him and the community that favour, because the community needs to be protected against him.”
He sentenced Van Staden to life imprisonment for the December 2000 murder of fellow gang member Gordon Harding. Both Van Staden and Harding were out on bail at the time.
He gave him a further 20 years behind bars for breaking into his brother’s room and stealing a firearm and other goods, as well as the illegal possession of the firearm and ammunition.
Van Staden told the court he was one of four self-styled generals in the powerful Royal Air Force prison gang and he was the one who decreed how members who broke the rules should be punished.
Harding had broken the rules by ratting on him and telling prison authorities he had master keys to the prison doors. This was a violation of their code of conduct punishable by death, he said.
He told the court he was under the influence of drugs and alcohol when he executed Harding at a Pretoria hotel by pushing a firearm against his head and pulling the trigger.
He regretted the deed because Harding had once been his friend. But he would do it again if given the chance, he said. Raulinga said Van Staden, who had been in and out of jail from a very young age, felt he belonged in jail which he regarded as his home.
He said there were no compelling circumstances to justify a lesser sentence, especially in the light of Van Staden’s string of previous convictions, which showed a continuous pattern of criminal behaviour. – Sapa