A gangster who shot and killed a police detective inspector has been sentenced to 13 years' imprisonment by a Mitchell's Plain regional court magistrate.
Conroy Owies, 20, of Tafelsig smiled at relatives as he was led into the Mitchell's Plain magistrate's court holding cells on Wednesday.
Regional magistrate Neliswa Jakuja convicted Owies of gunning down detective Inspector Cedric Minnaar on Tuesday, January 28, 2003 in Dassenberg Street, Tafelsig.
On Wednesday, Jakuja told Owies: "You are a gangster who abused drugs, and you emptied your gun (into) the inspector."
A second accused, Cassiem Martin, later turned State witness. Martin told the court it had been Owies who had shot Minnaar.
Martin has been acquitted.
Minnaar was 38 when he died. He lived in Portland and was based at the Maitland police detective branch.
He was off-duty and unarmed when he was shot 11 times while sitting in his private car talking to a woman friend.
Two men approached him and asked whether he had a firearm.
Minnaar shouted to his friend to get out of the vehicle and run into the house. She heard several shots and found Minnaar on the ground next to his car. He had been shot in the stomach, chest, left arm and neck. He was taken to the Vincent Palotti Hospital in Pinelands where he died.
Minnaar operated a soup kitchen for destitute people in the area he was gunned down. He was a volunteer and assistant co-ordinator of the Mitchell's Plain Volunteer Emergency Medical Services.
Jakuja told Owies before sentencing him: "You are a ruthless young person. You showed no remorse and you lied to this court. The community expects this court to protect them against people like you."
In her address to the court, state prosecutor Natasha Simons said Minnaar's relatives had visited his tombstone at a graveyard, while Owies's family could visit him in prison where he was alive.
Owies's advocate, Vernon Jantjies, said the court should show "an element of mercy, because he was very young when the offence was committed". Owies was 16 at the time.
Community Safety MEC Leonard Ramatlakane welcomed the sentence.
"This confirms that the government is serious about tackling organised crime," he said. "It also serves as a warning to young boys harbouring thoughts of joining gangs."
But Minnaar's family was disappointed with the sentence. His brothers, Cliffie and Derrick Minnaar, and sister Avril Minnaar, who attended court on Wednesday, said: "A policeman's life is worth nothing. They are there to protect and to serve, but if they themselves are not protected by the law and the judiciary, how can they serve and protect?"
Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru) provincial secretary Francisco Fields said: "An attack on a police member is an attack against the state. There was nothing stopping the court from inflicting a harsher sentence."