The man who took revenge on his brother’s murderer by hacking him to death with an axe last year was sent to prison for 12 years by the Grahamstown High Court on Thursday.
Referring to what state advocate Heinz Obermeyer had termed a ”brutal and inhuman act”, Judge Andre Erasmus said that Milile Ngiwa (26) had struck Luvo Mzozayana (22) with an axe and ”destroyed his face and brain”.
Mzozayana, who was alleged by Ngiwa to have murdered his brother in November last year, was killed by Ngiwa in a confrontation near the Qhayiya Primary School in Bathurst on December 15 last year.
Of seven people arrested in connection with the murder, five appeared in court, and the state withdrew charges against Sithembele Jobela (21) before going to trial.
On Wednesday, Judge Erasmus found Anelisa Sweli (18) and brothers Thembela Mbanzi (19) and Lungilie Mbanzi (19) not guilty and discharged them.
All the accused and both the deceased were from the Nolokhanyo township, near Bathurst.
Ngiwa’s brother and the man who murdered him were members of the ”26s” and ”28s” prison gangs, respectively.
Taking into account that Ngiwa’s brother had been brutally murdered the month before the incident, on the night in question the judge said Ngiwa’s intoxicated state coupled with his frustration ”brought to the fore his animal instincts”.
He said he confronted Mzozayana, who said he was too drunk to talk to him.
”According to witnesses the attack was cruel and ferocious and the accused acted with a direct intent to kill.
”In his favour, the attack was not planned or premeditated, but spontaneous in the continued excessive violence which escalated and is indicative of a complete loss of self-control.”
The judge said the state had proved the motive for the attack as an act of revenge in retaliation for his brother’s murder.
Ngiwa’s elderly mother, a pensioner, cried in the public gallery as sentenced was passed.
The judge said there were reasons to impose a lesser sentence than the prescribed sentence of 15 years, and chief among these were the fact that Ngiwa was a first offender, and could be rehabilitated. — Sapa