Heather Hogan
A Dutch Reformed minister’s son was sentenced to life imprisonment in the Johannesburg High Court this week for the hijack and murder of the bodyguard of Joe Nhlanhla, the former minister of intelligence.
Pule Mokoena (26) appeared in court along with three other men, all of whom were facing charges of murder, robbery with aggravating circumstances, attempted murder, kidnapping and unlawful possession of firearms and ammunition.
Reverend Johannes Mokoena, a Dutch Reformed Church minister, still believes his son is innocent and was tricked into his current predicament by Lucky Masoeu, a friend and one of his co-accused.
But Judge Phillip Boruchowitz saw things differently. “The accused have committed a callous, senseless and evil murder,” he said during the sentencing for what he called a “cowardly attack”.
During his testimony, despite being implicated by several witnesses, young Mokoena continued to swear he was innocent. He gave a different version of events to that which his father claims he told him and he contradicted himself frequently during cross-examination. When this was pointed out to him, Mokoena claimed he’d misunderstood questions, despite the help of an interpreter.
Instead, when the prosecutor asked him why he thought all the witnesses had identified him and whether some of them, including the girlfriend of one of the men present at the hi-jacking, had cause to hate and lie about him, Mokoena, pouting and rolling his eyes, replied: “Maybe she hates me, who knows.”
Judge Boruchowitz rejected Mokoena’s testimony as manifestly false. This factor counted against Mokoena despite his previously crime-free record – a bonus two of his co-accused couldn’t lay claim to.
According to court documents, Veli Llale – owner of the the hijacked Audi A4 and bodyguard to Nhlanhla – had parked his car outside a house in Zone 6 Meadowlands on November 29 1998, leaving his young son alone inside the vehicle. Llale returned to the car and was about to drive off when the accused and their companion, a man the court documents call “Sipho”, opened fire on him. Both Llale and Sipho were shot.
The court documents claim the accused pushed Llale and the child from the car and put Sipho inside, but two other men arrived on the scene. One of them opened fire on the hijackers, who fled in the vehicle. While the accused were still travelling in it, the Audi’s engine stalled and after abandoning the vehicle, they allegedly entered a property where they forced a man to transport Sipho to a hospital. Llale was taken to Tshepo Themba Clinic, but both he and Sipho died from their wounds.
Mokoena says he feels awkward because Llale’s family are friends of his, but he claims they know his son is innocent. “I believe my son,” Mokoena told the Mail & Guardian during the trial. “As a minister, if I didn’t, I wouldn’t be sitting in this court with him now.”
But Mokoena did not attend the sentencing because,he was “not that brave”.
Although the accused were acquitted on charges of kidnapping due to a lack of evidence, they were all found guilty on other counts. They were each given a life sentence for the murder and a further 23 years for the remaining charges, all of which will run concurrently. They will only be eligible for parole in 25 years.
Judge Boruchowitz maintained that due to the seriousness of the crime, he could find no mitigating circumstances on which to reduce the sentences of either of the first-time offenders – namely Mokoena and the fourth of his co-accused.
n The Nhlanhla case was not the only matter finalised in court 4A this week. During the trial, the court returned from lunch one Friday to find that all of the microphones had been stolen, leaving the court audience whispering strange and wacky tales of conspiracy. The day before 4A’s accused were sentenced, the suspected microphone thief was also caught, hopefully solving the mystery of the missing microphones too.