A Limpopo farmer who shot dead a Zimbabwean worker he claimed to have mistaken for a baboon was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Thursday.
South African Broadcasting Corporation news reported Jewell Crossberg was convicted earlier in the day of murdering Jealous Dube.
He was also found guilty of attempting to murder four other farm workers, which landed him four five-year terms in prison. The sentences are to run concurrently.
Judge Ronnie Boshielo based his judgement — handed down in the Pretoria High Court, sitting in Polokwane — on the fact that Crossberg did not show any remorse.
He shot the deceased and did not check what had happened even when police came to the scene, the judge said.
Crossberg’s defence argued that he did show remorse as he paid Dube’s funeral costs.
The court heard that Crossberg shot and killed Dube on a farm in Musina in 2004 and shot at four other employees after he had accused them of laziness.
Boshielo dismissed Crossberg’s claim that he fired shots to scare off a troop of baboons terrorising his farm. — Sapa