A Pietermaritzburg gangster was given two life sentences in the town’s magistrate’s court on Wednesday for taking part in a R20 000 armed robbery in which two men were shot and killed.
The men — vintner De Wet Joubert (64) and gang member Sandile Jili — were shot in a busy Pietermaritzburg shopping mall in April 2004.
In his plea before Judge Ron McLaren, John Vusimuzi Ndawonde (35), of Cato Ridge said that Joubert and Jili had shot each other.
He said Joubert died in the store while Jili — who was carried from the store as he could not walk and taken to a house in the city where he did not receive medical help — died the same day. His body was dumped by a roadside.
Although Ndawonde did not shoot Joubert or Jili, he was convicted of their murders because he knew that there could be deaths but took part in the armed robbery.
Ndawonde’s fellow perpetrators, Lungisani Mchunu and Sibonelo Khanyile, were given two life sentences for the same crimes in July.
Ndawonde and fellow gang member Patrick Luthuli stood trial with Mchunu and Sibonelo but absconded during the trial. All four were on bail, which the state had opposed. While on bail, Mchunu took part in a raid on a Greytown farm in which farmer David Varty was shot dead.
McLaren said he could not find substantial and compelling circumstances for Ndawonde that would allow him to depart from the prescribed life sentences for the murders and the 15 years’ jail sentence for the aggravated robbery of De Wet and Anna Joubert.
McLaren said: ”In real gangster-like style, with three loaded firearms they launched a brazen robbery showing no regard for the rights and safety of people.” Joubert was made to open a safe at gunpoint.
He said Ndawonde knew that people could be killed in the robbery, yet he pressed on to rob the Jouberts, McLaren said.
Joubert said she is relieved that there is now closure and that the gangsters are either dead or have been given life sentences. She had not been able to manage the store after the robbery and subsequently sold it. — Sapa