Killer father enters into plea deal
Agreement to determine sentence
A father who shot dead his teenage son fearing he was a hijacker will soon know his fate.
The Lenasia magistrate’s court heard yesterday that lawyers for Sibusiso Emmanuel Tshabalala and the office of the director of public prosecutions (DPP) have reached a decision to draft a plea and sentence agreement. Luyanda, 16, was killed after he had finished extra classes in June.
His father had taken his son to school for extra classes but fell asleep in his car while waiting for him.
The teenager later knocked on the window of the car after his classes but his father shot him after he mistook him for a criminal. Tshabalala, from Ennerdale in southern Johannesburg, filed representations with the DPP in December asking that a charge of murder be changed to a lesser charge. During a brief appearance in court yesterday, magistrate Maggie van der Merwe told Tshabalala that his lawyer and the DPP had agreed on a charge that he would plead to, and a sentence.
“They have decided they will enter into a formal plea agreement, which is an agreement in writing. That agreement will determine the charge, the facts on which you are entering the plea of guilty and the sentence,” Van der Merwe told Tshabalala. She said usually this type of plea and sentence agreement was presented to the court, and as a rule she would endorse it. The agreement must still be drafted and the defence and prosecution asked to be given six weeks to do so. “It has been agreed that in the interim, a probation officer’s report would still need to be obtained. Expect a visit from them, you and your family,” she said.
There will also be a victimimpact statement presented to court, giving insight into the impact of the incident. “All these reports have to be obtained and this formal plea agreement has to be drafted. “As such, I have been asked to postpone the matter for a period of six weeks.” . The matter was postponed to April 23. Tshabalala previously tried to commit suicide as a result of the incident. “He’s suffering. He wanted to take his own life,” his wife Siphiwe Khalishwayo previously told TimesLIVE. “I had to be strong for him. We had to talk through this, telling him about his other young children.”