Former Goodwood police station commander Siphiwe Hewana was jailed for four years on Monday for attempting to defeat the ends of justice.
He appeared in the Parow Regional Court before Magistrate Elsa van Zyl, who authorised the prison authorities to release him into house arrest after he had completed eight months of the sentence.
Hewana was jailed after prosecutor Barry van der Berg urged a sentence of direct imprisonment for “vigorously interfering with the course of justice”.
The case arose from Hewana’s attempt to protect former ANC chief whip Tony Yengeni, who had been arrested late at night in 2007 for alleged drunken driving at a time when he had been released from prison on parole.
In terms of his parole conditions, Yengeni was not allowed to be out late at night, nor consume liquor, and because of his arrest faced having to go back to jail.
On Hewana’s orders, Yengeni’s original docket was destroyed, and a new one opened with false information in it.
Yengeni’s blood sample was also illegally placed in Hewana’s office, instead of being sent for forensic analysis.
This led to Yengeni’s acquittal on the drunk-driving charge.
Van der Berg said the rule of law formed the very foundation of society, and society could not afford a legal system in which it was easy for people to interfere with the justice system.
A lenient sentence would convey the wrong impression that people in high places were above the law.
Van der Berg said Yengeni had made a mockery of the justice system and, when he got caught for drunk driving, Hewana, then a very senior police officer, had threatened the police officials involved in Yengeni’s arrest.
The investigating official was shocked and had asked to be taken off the Yengeni case, after Hewana had requested him to “do something” with the Yengeni blood sample, Van der Berg said.
To the very end, Hewana had shown no remorse for what he had done.
Defence attorney Greg Duncan said Hewana’s lack of remorse was due to his belief that he was innocent.
He said Hewana had lost his job in the police, and that a sentence of house arrest, without first going to jail, would be adequate punishment.
The defence is to launch an application for leave to appeal on May 17. –Sapa