Durban - A man convicted of stealing 30 sheep was handed a 15-year jail sentence, the National Prosecuting Authority said on Friday.
NPA spokeswoman Natasha Ramkisson-Kara said the 39-year-old Mzwandile Hlwili’s three co-accused were also handed stiff sentences in the Kokstad Regional court on Wednesday, with sentences of 10 and 12 years.
The four were arrested after police pulled over their overloaded bakkie. Police discovered 30 sheep, 24 of which had suffocated to death.
Ramkisson-Kara said that one of the four men admitted to police that the sheep had been stolen from a farm in the Cedarville area.
The four pleaded not guilty but in their defence implicated each other.
Apart from Hlwili, Zwelakhe Nokwabuza, 33, and Mabhekela Nojaja,52, were sentenced to 10 years imprisonment and Solethu Nokwabuza, 24, to 12 years.
All of the men will have to serve half their sentence, while the other half of their sentence was suspended for five years, meaning that if they commit a similar crime in the five years after being released, they will have to serve the rest of their sentence behind bars.
The bakkie was seized by the Asset Forfeiture Unit, she said.
ANA