A soccer referee who shot dead a coach last year will effectively spend four years in prison, The Herald Online reported on Friday.
It said the Grahamstown High Court sentenced Ncedisile Zakhe (26) on Thursday to six years in prison for culpable homicide.
Two years of the sentence were suspended for five years on condition that Zakhe was not convicted of culpable homicide involving the use of a firearm during that period.
He was sentenced to 18 months’ jail for two counts of injuring a person by negligently using a firearm.
Zakhe was given a further two years for having been in the possession of an unlicensed firearm, and possession of unlicensed ammunition.
Judge Jeremy Pickering ordered that the sentences run concurrently, which meant Zakhe would spend four years in jail
Zakhe shot dead Kenton-on-Sea coach Michael Sizani on July 24 last year.
This happened during a soccer match between Young Tigers FC from Marselle and Kenton-on-Sea’s Mighty Eleven Chiefs in the town’s Ekuphumleni soccer stadium on July 24 last year.
In the shooting, Zakhe also injured Mighty Eleven’s coach Mbuzeli Ziqula and player Zandisile George.
Zakhe had awarded a penalty and yellow-carded a player from the Marselle club for a foul, when an argument developed. Zakhe took out a gun, concealed in his pants, and fired a shot.
The bullet hit Ziqula and another player before hitting Sizani in the chest. The coach staggered a few steps before collapsing and dying.
Zakhe then jumped over the stadium fence and fled. He was initially charged with murdering Sizani, but the charge was changed to culpable homicide after Zakhe pleaded guilty to unintentionally killing Sizani.
Handing down sentence, the judge said Zakhe did not act with the intention of killing Sizane.
”The incident was rather in the nature of a tragic accident occasioned by the accused’s irresponsible and negligent behaviour,” said Pickering.
”It must therefore not be imbued with any more sinister overtones. There are none. It is not a case of murder. It is a case of culpable homicide.”
After sentence was passed, a smiling Zakhe apologised to Sizani’s family and the Kenton-on-Sea community.
”I accept the sentence I got because what I did was wrong,” he said.
Sizani’s family shouted insults at him as he left court. The Witness quoted Sizani’s mother as saying she was ”most unhappy” with the sentence.
”What am I supposed to do with my four grandchildren now? This man killed my son, he did not just spill my cup of tea,” she said. – Sapa