A Durban hijacker who shot dead a Pietermaritzburg teacher and wounded his girlfriend was sentenced to life plus 45 years in the Pietermaritzburg High Court on Tuesday.
Mlandeli Madlala (22) was given a life sentence for the February 2005 murder of Irshad Jogiat, a teacher who was to obtain a law degree at the end of that year.
In addition he received 15 years for robbing Jogiat and his girlfriend, Bilkis Bannoo Moola, of their car and other items in aggravating circumstances in Pietermaritzburg.
Judge Atkins Moleko said the deterrent and retributive elements of sentencing should be emphasised. Motorists travelling along roads or sitting in their cars are no longer safe.
The couple was sitting in the car when Madlala and another man smashed the driver’s window with the butt of a pistol. When Jogiat sounded the hooter, Madlala fatally shot Jogiat in the stomach. He shot and wounded Moola three times.
The hijackers then threw them out of the car. Moola’s dress was caught in the vehicle and she was dragged and suffered abrasions as the hijackers drove away.
Madlala was sentenced to 10 years in jail for the attempted murder of Moola.
Investigating officer Inspector Deon de Roubaix later found the hijacked car in Clermont, Durban.
A witness said that on the night of the hijack Madlala was seen driving the car with a plastic sheet covering the missing driver’s window.
Members of the police’s Durban intervention unit lay siege to his room early one morning a few days later. He refused to surrender himself and shot at the police officers. After two stun grenades were thrown into his room, he was arrested. It was later established that the gun in his possession had fired a bullet that was removed from Moola’s thigh.
Moleko sentenced Madlala to 15 years for the attempted murder of three of the arresting police officers and a further five years for the possession of a stolen firearm and ammunition.
Moleko said Jogiat’s father, Mohamed Jogiat, and his wife had been severely affected by their son’s death. They had gone for counselling and were placed on medication. Moola had shown signs of trauma when she testified.
A friend of the family, who lives in the Middle East and did not want to be named, said the only way to reduce the wave of hijackings, other robberies and attacks is to bring back the death sentence and corporal punishment as is done in some Middle Eastern countries. — Sapa