Two men were jailed for 25 years on Tuesday for trying to kill a priest and robbing a security guard at a hospice outside Pretoria last year.
Sentencing the pair, Atteridgeville Magistrate Allan Cowan described them as ”thugs and hoodlums”.
Lesetsa Godfrey Phatlane (25) of Jeffsville and Edward Molato Lesufi (31) of Brazzaville, were earlier convicted of attempted murder and armed robbery.
They were part of a gang that overpowered security guard Victor Makgale at the Leratong Hospice in Atteridgeville in February 2007.
Makgale was tied up, and robbed of a cellphone and radio. He was then assaulted as the attackers sought the whereabouts of Irish-born priest Father Kieran Creagh. The gang then attacked the priest, firing several shots at him.
He was hit twice and was ”literally brought back from the brink of death”, the magistrate said.
The two accused were arrested in April that year and pleaded not guilty.
Cowan said that after attacking the guard, they rang a bell used to call the priest in emergencies to perform the last rites on dying patients.
”These cowards in hooded jackets attacked him. The priest resisted. He fought for his life. But these hoodlums beat him to the ground. Two shots hit him at close range,” Cowan said.
The magistrate took into account that the accused were first offenders and had been in jail awaiting trial for more than a year.
However, he was adamant that they did not belong in society and should be removed for as long as reasonably possible.
The two accused were sentenced to 15 years for the robbery and another 15 years for the attempted murder. He ordered that five years of the one sentence run concurrently with the other so that the accused would be jailed for 25 years. – Sapa