Jail killers for life, court told
THEWestern Cape High Court heard yesterday that the men who murdered four Pakistanis in March 2013 had been “guided by greed.”
Prosecutor Kriban Pillay said the men had committed “senseless” crimes that had left the victims’ families devastated.
On Monday Lehano Jansen and Yazeed Hendricks were found guilty of a range of crimes including murder, armed robbery, attempted murder and hijacking.
The third co-accused, Moegamat Nasief de Villiers, was convicted on two counts of illegal possession of firearms as well as armed robbery.
The case dates from March 18 and 19, 2013, when the men went on a violent crime spree that started with the hijacking of a couple and ended with the murder of four men a day later.
Pillay argued yesterday that Jansen had committed a “brazen act of violence” and that he and Yazeed Hendricks “should face life imprisonment”.
He said Jansen had been positively identified and that “evidence implicating him was overwhelming”.
Motive
Pillay said the men expected to find between R60 000 and R100 000 in the safe at the house, but found just R37.
Describing the murders as “senseless”, he said that needed to be viewed as an aggravating factor.
Pillay argued that the men should have thought first about their victims’ dependants before embarking on such a devastating crime spree.
And, he pointed out, they had still not taken the court into their confidence as to the motive for the killings.
A relative of the victims, Abid Hussein, told the court in aggravation of sentence that his family living in Pakistan had been devastated by the murders.
The men had been living and working together and sending money home to their families in Pakistan.
Hussein has had to close down his bread distribution business and gets by as a parttime driver.
He called on the court and the government to show the world that in South Africa “you can’t just go and kill people”. – ANA