LENGTHY SENTENCES FOR FARM ROBBERS
The Gqeberha Regional Court sentenced Vuyile Magwa (38), Kwanele Madasi (31) Bulelani Mti (35) to sentences ranging between 35 years and 58 years after convicting them on charges relating to the robbery of a farmer in Addo in 2018. The three were all sentenced to ten years for housebreaking with intent to rob, five years for kidnapping five years and five years for fraud. Magwa and Madasi were sentenced to 20 years for robbery with aggravating circumstances, while Mti was sentenced to 15 years on the same charge. Magwa was sentenced to an additional 18 years on charges of unlawful possession of firearms, including a semi-automatic firearm.
The men were all friends and conspired to go and break into the premises of the 68-year-old Elimdrift Farm owner. On the first day, they went for a reconnaissance. They returned on the next day and found the victim busy at the door, attacked him, covered him with a duvet cover and assaulted him with a blunt object on his head. He immediately lost consciousness and woke up tied to a chair, with the assailants busy searching the house alleging that he had a safe with money lots of money.
When they did not find the money, they stole firearms and kidnapped the victim in his vehicle, took him to an adjacent farm he was keeping an eye on for a neighbour and forced him to open it. Again, they searched that house and stole some property. The men took the elderly farmer to a shack near New Brighton, in Gqeberha, tied him up and demanded that he hands over his bank cards and pin failing which, they would kill him. They kept him in a shack overnight and on the next day went on a shopping spree, buying expensive clothes in several stores at Kenako Mall in Gqeberha.
They then released the victim, threatening him with death if he opened a case, and handed him his vehicle. He drove away in a state of shock, and he alerted his neighbour who contacted the police. Investigations led to the arrested of the three men and the recovery of the firearms. During the trial, they all had a bare denial of the allegations. Magwa and Madasi were already serving a sentence of 20 years imprisonment for a similar offence, committed two months before the Elimdrift robbery, which was also successfully prosecuted by State Advocate Sivuyile Mckay.
Eastern Cape Director of Public Prosecutions, Barry Madolo, has applauded Advocate Mckay, prosecutor Melani Hammet, Warrant Officer Louwrence and Colonel Mayi for their roles in the successful prosecution of the men who terrorized that farming community. The court noted that since the arrest of the trio, the farm robberies in that area have subsided.
