Howick ‘rampage’: sentence reduced
A man who went on a “sadistic rampage” at the Howick Falls park had his 35-year sentence reduced to 20 years.
|||Durban - A man who went on a “sadistic rampage” involving robbery, indecent assault and rape at the Howick Falls park in 2007 had his effective 35-year sentence reduced to 20 years on Thursday because it was regarded as shockingly severe and inappropriate.
Judge Themba Sishi said in a reserved judgement handed down in the Pietermaritzburg High Court, with judges Rishi Seegobin and Peter Olsen concurring, that the original sentence imposed on Siyabonga Cele was on a scale that should be reserved for those cases falling within the “upper echelons of severity”.
He said the sentences for the aggravated robbery counts had been harsh.
“Although the victims were clearly terrified of being shot, no physical violence was inflicted; no bodily injuries were suffered in all counts of robbery with aggravating circumstances … the value of the items stolen was also not great.”
The judge did not interfere with the individual sentences imposed on each of the six counts, which were: three of aggravated robbery, incitement to rape, indecent assault and rape.
However, he ordered that the sentences on the five other charges run concurrently with the rape sentence, reducing the term to 20 years.
Cele was sentenced in the city’s high court in January 2009 by Judge Chris Nicholson after pleading guilty.
In his plea, he said he and two others took part in three separate attacks on July 15, two of which were at the public park. The three men, while drinking alcohol, first decided to rob three men and a woman at the park. Cele threatened them with a home-made gun.
The victims were then told to strip, and the woman and her boyfriend were forced to have sex. The three then robbed a tavern of R2 000 and three bottles of brandy. They returned to the park where they robbed another group of four, and Cele raped a woman.
Judge Sishi said that Cele and his companions were brazen enough to perpetrate the attacks in a public area.
The complainants were not only robbed of their belongings, but in respect of two of the counts, had to suffer the indignity of being indecently assaulted.
The Mercury