/ 20 November 2001

ODENDAAL LAUNCHES APPEAL

SASOLBURG businessman Piet Odendaal is expected to appeal against his seven-year jail sentence in the Appeal Court in Bloemfontein on Monday. Odendaal was last week convicted of culpable homicide and sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment for the death of employee Mosoko Rampuru. Rampuru’s body was dragged behind his bakkie through the streets of Sasolburg for more than five kilometers in August last year. Three years of the sentence were suspended for four years. The Justice Department last week said the Public Prosecutions Directorate would be entitled to argue against Odendaal’s appeal, even for an increased sentence. Odendaal maintained he could remember nothing from about 8pm that evening, and that his use of the sedative Xanor coupled with alcohol had caused memory loss. -Sapa