A Bergvliet motorist found to have acted negligently when he knocked down and killed a cyclist, was not “prison material”, his lawyer has told the Wynberg Regional Court.
William Booth, presenting his closing argument before magistrate Karel Meyer on Wednesday, said the court should impose a non-custodial sentence on his client, Andries Zuidema.
Zuidema, 29, was convicted in April of culpable homicide and of contravening the Road Traffic Act for failing to assist cyclist Jan Hendrick Olivier after he knocked him over on March 11, 2006 while driving his Mitsubishi bakkie.
Olivier, his son Cedrick, and friend Andrew Dalton were training for the Cape Argus Pick n Pay Cycle Tour.
In court on Wednesday, Booth argued that his client was a first offender and had fixed employment.
“We are dealing with a person who does not have criminal tendencies or needs to be removed from society because he clashed with the law before,” Booth said.
“It is highly unlikely that he will again cross swords with the law.
“The accused is not, as it is commonly said, prison material.”
However, the prosecutor, Bantu Nyembezi, described Booth’s submission as “very strange”.
“One’s own conduct determines whether you are prison material,” he said.
“The accused failed to keep a proper lookout and this caused him to be prison material.
“A human life was taken untimely and unlawfully by the actions of the accused.”
Nyembezi asked the court to sentence Zuidema in terms of a section of the Criminal Procedure Act that said a portion of the sentence imposed be served in prison and the remainder under correctional supervision.
He said the sentence should serve as a deterrent to other motorists, and asked the court to order that Zuidema’s licence be suspended.
Zuidema is expected to be sentenced on July 28.
- The Cape Argus has previously spelt Zuidema’s surname as Zuideman.
This spelling was incorrectly noted on the charge sheet, which the newspaper accepted as correct. - Cape Argus