Cape Town - Grassy Park police have raised the alarm after two convicted killers were recently handed a mere five years’ imprisonment by the Wynberg Regional Court.
Station commander Colonel Dawood Laing said investigators had been left baffled by the light sentences after thorough investigations by detectives had secured the convictions. Laing said despite their best efforts some gangsters were getting away with murder.
In the first case, dating back to 2017, an alleged thief was attacked by an angry mob in Grassy Park and dumped in the Philippi farmlands to die.
“At the time, I was stationed at Philippi police station and he was brought to the station by a farmer who had found the badly beaten man near his water pump,” said Laing.
“At the time the victim told me he was accused of stealing from a house and was attacked by five people who dumped him on the farm to die, but he initially survived.
“After a long wait for the ambulance, he was taken to hospital, but died on the way there.”
In this case, Grassy Park detectives arrested the mob but when the matter went to trial, only one person, Taariq Davids, was found guilty.
“He was sentenced to just five years for a serious crime like murder.”
Laing said in the second matter, a 17-year-old youth was arrested for killing a 41-year-old man during an argument in Parkwood in 2020.
“After the murder, he was also arrested for the armed robbery of a 16-year-old girl in Fairways, where he held her at gunpoint. For the murder, he got five years and for the armed robbery he got 10 years,” Laing said.
Laing said that after assessing the recent sentences it had been found that those arrested for less serious crimes had received harsher sentences than convicted killers.
“In one case we had a guy who robbed someone of a bike and was given 12 years, suspended for four years.
“The courts are guided by the minimum prescribed sentences but this is also impacted by mitigating and aggravating circumstances.
“However, we remain positive and we have obtained good sentences for firearm-related crimes. In addition, rape and GBV-related matters, like, the school teacher who allegedly raped primary schoolgirls, will go on trial in the Western Cape High Court soon.”