The four murderers of Payne’s Farm school deputy principal Zingisile Nongoma were on Tuesday sentenced to lengthy jail terms by Judge Nielan Locke in the Umtata High Court.
Nongoma was shot dead near the school on January 18, 2000, when he and another teacher were on their way to banks R7 499 in school funds. The money was taken during the attack.
Locke sentenced Vuyisa Ngcukuva (23) and Zamekile Fatana (32) to life imprisonment for murder, and 25 years for robbery. Mandla Vanqa (40) and Churchill Spambo (31) whose fathers were police commissioners in the then Transkei police, were given 15 years each for murder, and 25 years for robbery.
Spambo was teaching at the same school as Nongoma, and Vanqa, who is already serving six years for rape, was teaching at a school near Coffee Bay.
In passing sentence, Locke said the use of firearms in armed robberies was at a peak, especially in Transkei.
”It was time now that legislators pass laws that should do away with firearms. Invariably every case that comes before this court involves a firearm.
”Coming to court this morning I heard over the radio that vigilantism is on the increase within the communities. People have lost faith in the police and justice system. They are grouping themselves to fight this scourge of crime,” he said.
Eastern Cape’s head of the Criminal Intelligence Service director Gary Maclaren confirmed that Fatana was facing 17 other taxi-related murder cases.
And Ngcukuva was facing a taxi-related murder case and possession of illegal firearms. – Sapa