Cape Town - The Hermanus Regional Court has sentenced a member of the Junior Mafia gang operating in the Gansbaai, Stanford and Buffeljagsbaai areas to 30 years imprisonment after he was convicted of murdering a man linked to illegal abalone smuggling who refused to be extorted.
Ronaldo van der Berg, 24, was found guilty for the murder of Cameron Marc Padayachee, attempted murder and the illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition.
According to evidence before the court, Padayache and his employee were fixing his vehicle in front of his home in Kapokblom Street, Blompak in Gaansbaai on December 21, 2021, when Van der Berg approached the men and opened fire.
Padayachee’s two minor children were in the vehicle at the time of the incident.
The children and the employee were unharmed. The court heard this was the second attempt on Padayachee’s life.
During his plea and sentencing agreement, Van der Berg confessed that a decision was taken to murder Padayachee after he refused to pay extortion from the money he earned from his abalone poaching business.
He further told the court that during his first attempt to kill Padayachee, the victim jumped into his vehicle and drove off.
On the day of the murder, Van der Berg and another man went to fetch the firearm and he approached Padayachee and shot him eight times.
“The killing of Padayachee, was premeditated and committed with direct intent. The motive was to teach him and other abalone poachers, not to disobey orders, pay a certain percentage of their illegal abalone proceeds to a grouping or suffer dire consequences,” the prosecutor said.
“His murder sent out a warning to other poachers, to comply with orders to pay certain amounts of money to be allowed to continue with their poaching activities.
“The deceased’s two young children were close to where their father was shot and were very traumatised by the incident. The accused had no regard for their safety or wellbeing.”
Van der Berg was sentenced to 30 years for murder, 10 years for attempted murder, 10 years for the illegal possession of a firearm and gove years for illegal possession of ammunition.
This brought his total sentence to 55 years imprisonment, but the court ordered that he must effectively serve 30 years, the provincial spokesperson for the National Prosecuting Authority Eric Ntabazalila said, adding: “The court found Section 10 (3) of the Prevention of Organised Act, Act 121 of 1998, applicable on all four counts, in that the accused at the time of the commission of the offences, was a member of a criminal gang and such finding shall be regarded as aggravating circumstances for sentencing purposes.”
He said van der Berg was further declared unfit to possess a firearm and the court ordered police to seize all firearms, and ammunition including any licenses, permits or authorisation for possession of firearms and ammunition.