Durban — Two July 2021 unrest looters were convicted and sentenced to five years imprisonment for public violence.
Police spokesperson Brigadier Jay Naicker said that on July 11, 2021, at 8.45pm, Greenwood Park police responded to reports of a service station being looted at Inanda Road in Durban by a large mob. The group pelted police officers with rocks, damaging the police vehicle in the process. The two police officers stood their ground and arrested two men as the crowd began to flee the scene.
“The two suspects, Sihle Jali, 41, and Sifiso Ngcobo, 29, were detained at Greenwood Park SAPS on charges of public violence. They subsequently made several appearances at the Durban Magistrate’s Court and on Friday, August 5, 2022, they were convicted and sentenced to five years imprisonment for public violence,” Naicker said.
KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Commissioner, Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi has welcomed the convictions.
“We wish to commend the arresting officers, the investigating officer as well as the prosecutor for ensuring that the perpetrators received a fitting sentence for their actions. This sentence sends a clear message that while the wheels of justice may sometimes turn slowly, criminals cannot escape their day of reckoning,” Mkhwanazi said.
Earlier this month, the trial of the alleged instigator in the Brookside Mall fire in Pietermaritzburg during the civil unrest was expected to begin on August 4, but it had to be postponed because the defence requested more time.
The trial of Ndumiseni Khetha Zuma, 35, was set to begin in the Pietermaritzburg Regional Court today. It was set down for August 4 and 5 in Regional Court 2.
“While the State was ready to proceed, to the effect that witnesses were warned to be in court, the matter was postponed at the behest of the defence.
In recent months, a number of accused have been found guilty and sentenced for July unrest-related crimes.
In June, Nhlanhla Samkelo Mthembu, 31, was sentenced by the Durban Regional Court to five years direct imprisonment after he pleaded guilty to the theft of a motor vehicle belonging to a business in Mobeni, south of Durban.
During the unrest, the complainant’s business property was looted and several of his business vehicles were taken, one of them being a Toyota Hino truck, valued at approximately R350 000.
Also in June, Lungelo Nthenga, 24, was jailed to five years imprisonment after he pleaded guilty to three counts of theft pertaining to the looting in July 2021 in the Mobeni industrial area. In his plea, Nthenga said that he was a taxi driver, and during the unrest, he used his vehicle to transport people to the Mobeni business industrial area on South Coast Road so they could loot.
He was arrested when his vehicle was stopped at a roadblock during a stop-and-search operation conducted by the police in order to deter looting conduct. His vehicle was loaded with tinned fish, rice, as well as items from the surrounding warehouses that were looted.
In March, the same court sentenced Mvelo Majola to six years imprisonment after he pleaded guilty to the theft of a motor vehicle during the looting and civil unrest in KwaZulu-Natal last year.
Majola had stolen a Hino truck that was one of nine vehicles stolen from Pharmed Pharmaceuticals in Riverhorse Valley on Nandi Drive.
Daily News