Cape Town - In a week plagued by murders, a Worcester man was handed a sentence of 25 years for killing three women in Wolseley.
The sentence perplexed not only the family and community but also Police Minister Bheki Cele who announced the quarterly crime statistics yesterday.
In his report he said out of the 6 859 people killed in the country between October and December, 902 were women and 352 children.
“I do not know how it happens,” said Cele, reacting to the sentence. “I always wonder what happened. I am not going to sit here and query these things. But I would really like to hear how do you kill and get those years.”
The past week has been a murderous week for Cape Town. At least 24 people were murdered, 15 were men and nine women. This, so far, is the highest number of women murdered in just a week.
Western Cape police commissioner Major-General Thembisile Patekile said the high number of murders was a concern.
“It has never happened that so many women were murdered in just a week. We are working on community involvement approaches to deal with this crime.”
Five areas – Delft, Kraaifontein, Mfuleni, Gugulethu and Harare – are in the top 10 areas with the most murders.
Overall the Western Cape showed a 6.9% decrease in the number of murders and a 24.5% decrease in attempted murders compared to the previous quarter in the province.
The families of the three young women who were murdered by serial killer Siyamcela Sobambela during a two-month killing spree in 2020 said they would be appealing the 25-year sentence handed down at the Worcester Court.
Disappointment and shock swept through the court yesterday after Judge Lister Nuku sentenced Sobambela to 25 years effectively for all three murders.
Sobambela confessed to the murders of Miche Pienaar, 25, Gizella Minnaar, 32, and Bernadine Frans, 21.
Nuku said he had to take into consideration that Sobambela had confessed to police and pointed out where he had buried Pienaar and Minnaar in shallow graves, adding that he has also expressed forgiveness and showed remorse.
“The accused has not explained why and he had buried the bodies of victim one and two. After considering all of the above, I will impose the following sentence, count one, 15 years, count two, 15 years, ten of which will run concurrently with count one. Count three, 15 years, ten of which will run concurrently and he will effectively serve 25 years behind bars.”
All three women were assaulted before being killed by Sobambela and Pienaar and Minnaar were buried in shallow graves. All three victims had visited Sobambela before their deaths.
Kristien Marthinus, 38, Frans’ mother, said the justice system had sent a negative message to perpetrators.
“We feel that the judge should have sent a message out there and look at what type of message he is sending out. I feel he is sending out a message to people, that you can kill, you will just get 25 years and it doesn’t matter how many people you are going to kill.
“We had so much hope, we hoped it would be life. It is like they never had rights as women.”
Francis Pienaar, Pienaar’s mom could not hold back the tears and said she was deeply disappointed.
“I am a pensioner and now a single parent that I need to raise her four-year-old son alone. He killed them so brutally, they suffered, he did not shoot them.”
Mariaan Minnaar, 62, the aunt of Gizella Minnaar said had to care for three of her niece’s children and would like to appeal the sentence and ask the assistance of their ward councillor and authorities for guidance.
“We thought he would have at least received life imprisonment and if we have the money we will definitely appeal this sentence, we are poor people, if we can get help to do this, we will appeal.
“She did char work and her 14-year-old child has been saying they miss their mother so much.”
Ward councillor Jacob Zalie said the families were encouraged to appeal the sentence which they felt was a disappointment in justice.
“If you look at the healing process, these families were supposed to have some form of closure and they had hoped that the justice system would not fail them today. Then the worst thing happened that they could have asked for, three people were killed and you get 25 years. The issue of parole is not mentioned which means he can be out in ten years.
“Now should he apply for parole the same display today of him being a first offender will be played and he will be out in ten years. The options of how to appeal must definitely be looked at because the justice system has failed us.
Eric Ntabazalila of the National Prosecuting Authority said they had expected a lengthier sentence imposed and was surprised by the outcome.
“We expected at least fifteen years for each murder and for them not to run concurrently and least serve 45 years. We hope the families find some solace.”
Researcher and policy analyst Ziyanda Stuurman said murder rates are proxy for determining overall safety of a country. “It is worrying that those numbers are up and that can be attributed to a multitude of factors like the political violence around the election, number of shootings in KwaZulu-Natal as well as taxi violence.”
Stuurman said a lot of people said that Cele is not interested in the policy side of his office.
“He likes going around visiting communities which is good and great but that is one part of the job. He could use the National Crime Prevention Strategy which was drafted before his time to bring together cabinet ministers to tackle crime.”
Weekend Argus