Two men sentenced for ‘callous, inhumane’ murder

Two men convicted in January of the murder of a Port Elizabeth man during a planned robbery were sentenced in the Port Elizabeth High Court yesterday

Mvuzo Jack, 29, and Khayalethu Lubisi, 28, received effective sentences of 20 and 15 years, respectively, after high court judge Elna Revelas found them guilty of murder and robbery with aggravating circumstances.

Revelas said the 2017 murder of Unathi Bless, 39, was “enormously callous and inhumane”.

Bless’s badly decomposed body was found in the bushes next to Uitenhage Road after he was dumped there with his hands and feet bound while, according to Jack, still alive.

A postmortem report could not determine the exact cause of death but indicated that Bless might have died from exposure and dehydration, Revelas said.

She found that the plan to rob Bless was premeditated by Jack after he had found out that his girlfriend at the time, Khanyiswa Zinco, 27, was having an affair with Bless.

“[Jack] carefully planned the robbery for self-serving motives.

“His conduct to involve others in his crime enterprise is most reprehensible,” Revelas said. Zinco and fourth accused Unathi Mxazi, 22, were acquitted of all charges at the end of the trial.

During the trial it emerged that on August 31 2017, Zinco had arranged, at the behest of Jack, to lure Bless to meet her at Jack’s Motherwell home.

After the pair arrived at Jack’s house, Zinco took Bless to the bedroom where he started to undress.

Prior to the arrival of the pair, Jack had convinced Lubisi to assist him in robbing Bless which, Revelas said, was because Lubisi wanted money.

In her testimony, Zinco said once Bless had his pants around his ankles, Jack stormed into the room and demanded that Zinco leave.

According to Jack it was then that Bless was assaulted and stabbed in the shoulder before he passed out.

His feet and hands were then bound in case he woke up and fought back.

Several hours later when Bless did not regain consciousness, he was wrapped in a blanket and put in the boot of his own car.

Mxazi was then recruited to drive the car as neither Jack nor Lubisi or a third person not identified in the court proceedings could drive.

Revelas found that Jack had told Mxazi where to drive to and when they stopped along

Uitenhage Road, Bless was removed from the boot and dumped on the side of the road.

During his testimony, Jack admitted that Bless was still breathing when they dumped his body.

Bless’s body was found 19 days later after Lubisi pointed out the spot to the police.

“[Jack and Lubisi] showed enormously callous and inhumane conduct in leaving a person alive in bushes.

“No sane person would do this,” Revelas said.

Revelas said the court had taken into account that both Jack and Lubisi were first-time offenders and that although they showed no remorse or took responsibility for their actions, there were grounds to deviate from the prescribed minimum sentence of life for murder.

“It is fair to say that [Jack] has a stronger personality than [Lubisi and] clearly exerted considerable influence over [Lubisi],” Revelas said.

Revelas sentenced Lubisi to 12 years on the charge of robbery with aggravating circumstances and 20 years for murder, five suspended, while Jack received 15 years for the robbery charge and 25 years for murder, with five years suspended.

Revelas ordered that both sentences for Jack and Lubisi run concurrently.