Bloemfontein | Wednesday
A SASOLBURG businessman who assaulted an employee and dragged him behind his bakkie for more than 5km was on Monday sentenced to an effective seven years imprisonment by a Bloemfontein judge.
Piet Odendaal was on Monday convicted of culpable homicide for causing the death of his employee Mosoko Rampuru in August last year. Judge AP van Coller imposed a ten-year sentence, of which three years were suspended for four years.
Odendaal was, however, freed on bail after his lawyer successfully applied for leave to appeal the sentence to a high court full bench.
Odendaal was charged with murdering Rampuru on August 25 last year and then dragging the body behind his bakkie through the streets of the town for more than 5km.
Rampuru’s body was found in a veld outside Sasolburg that night with a piece of wire attached to his ankle. He apparently died from being hit over the head before he was tied to the bakkie. Odendaal had also jumped on his chest.
Odendaal pleaded not guilty. He maintained he could remember nothing from about 8pm that evening, and that his use of the sedative Xanor coupled with alcohol had caused his memory loss.
Handing down sentence, Van Coller said violent crime was rampant, and the community could not but be shocked at Odendaal’s crime.
”If the punishment is not adequate, it will tarnish the esteem of the judicial system, and could result in people taking the law into their own hands,” he said.
In Odendaal’s favour, Van Coller found that he had not tied Rampuru to the bakkie while still alive. Odendaal had also apologised to Rampuru’s family through his lawyer.
The judge said he had taken into account the likelihood that ”something serious” had to have happened to make Odendaal explode in fury.
Other mitigating factors included the fact that he had no previous convictions, and that he was perceived as a kind boss.
As aggravating factors, however, the judge listed Odendaal’s jumping on Rampuru’s chest while he was lying on the ground. He said this was cowardly behaviour.
Odendaal had furthermore acted ”callously” by dumping Rampuru’s body in a veld without showing any respect.
”A man’s life was taken, and a family was left without a loved one,” Van Coller said.
”A long-term prison sentence is appropriate.”
Odendaal’s lawyer Terry Price asked for leave to appeal the sentence, saying the judge had failed to attach sufficient weight to the effects on his client of mixing Xanor and alcohol.
He said Van Coller had over-stated the interests of the community, and under-emphasised Odendaal’s personal circumstances.
The judge had also paid too much attention to the manner in which Odendaal got rid of the body.
The sentence was ”shockingly unfair”, Price argued.
Passing judgment in the morning, Van Coller said there was no evidence that Odendaal had meant to kill Rampuru.
”It was not proven beyond reasonable doubt that he had the intention to kill the deceased. He should, however, have foreseen that he could have caused his death through negligence, and is therefore guilty of culpable homicide.”
It was conclusively proven that Odendaal had assaulted Rampuru, and that this had lead to his death, the judge said.
The question, however, was whether he had realised what he was doing at the time.
Van Coller said there was no proof that Odendaal had defended himself, or that he acted in a state of automatism.
He also found there was no basis on which to conclude that Odendaal’s memory loss was fake.
Arguing in mitigation of sentence, Price told the court his client had acted in a ”moment of madness.”
Evidence showed that he was not a violent person. He had lost everything as a result of the event.
Odendaal has had to leave Sasolburg because the crime was perceived by the community as racially inspired, and Rampuru’s family were in the process of lodging civil claims against Odendaal, Price said.
Meanwhile, it has emerged that if Odendaal appeals his sentence, the Director of Public Prosecutions will be entitled to argue against him, even for an increased sentence, the Justice Ministry said on Tuesday.
”Government has the right to expect courts to protect the public,” Minister for Justice and Constitutional Development Penuell Maduna said on Tuesday in a statement on the case.
He said government did respect the independence of the courts but ”that where necessary heavy sentences should be imposed in appropriate cases as a deterrent”.
Courts’ findings should send an unequivocal message to society that violence of this nature would not be tolerated.
SA Human Rights commissioner Pansy Tlakula was reported in a Johannesburg newspaper as saying that such a sentence suggested that the life of a black man was cheap in South Africa. The wife of slain Mosoko Rampuru has lodged a civil claim against Odendaal. Ntjantja Rampuru is being assisted by a Johannesburg legal aid centre.
She is provisionally demanding damages of R110 000 for herself, R51 000 for her 11-year-old son, and R52 000 for a 15-year-old son.
Ntjantja said even though the money might be adequate for her, it was definitely not enough for her sons to go university.
She added that although she was bitter about the seven-year jail sentence handed to Odendaal, she was not going to appeal against it. – Sapa