Brakwater heist 7 to be sentenced on Friday

THE seven men who were convicted almost a month ago in connection with a N$5,3 million cash-in-transit heist that was carried out close to Windhoek near the end of 2000 are set to be sentenced in the High Court in Windhoek on Friday.

Acting Judge Annel Silungwe, who has been presiding over the long-running trial of the seven since its start in October 2002, on Friday last week heard final arguments on the sentences to be imposed on them. With the sentencing, Deputy Prosecutor-General Danie Small told Acting Judge Silungwe, the case before the Acting Judge has reached the most difficult stage that any criminal trial goes through.The seven men who are scheduled to be sentenced at the end of this week have been found guilty in varying capacities in connection with the November 17 2000 robbery, in which N$5,3 million was stolen from a cash-in-transit vehicle that was on its way from Windhoek to Ondangwa.Defence lawyer Winnie Christians, representing Hyacinth James Ningisa and Hendrick Tsibande, who were both found guilty as perpetrators of the cash-in-transit heist and another armed robbery in which a car that was to be used in the heist was stolen at gunpoint from its owner the evening before the heist, was the first of the defence counsel involved in the trial to address Acting Judge Silungwe on Friday.Any sentence should not be so heavy that it could break a person, Christians told the court.He asked the Acting Judge to order that the sentences that Ningisa and Tsibande will be receiving on the two armed robbery charges should run concurrently, while the two other charges on which they were convicted – these are counts of illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition – should be taken together for sentencing.Addressing the court on behalf of Macdonald Kambonde, the driver of the targeted cash-in-transit vehicle who was accused of having been an inside contact for the robbers, defence counsel Lucius Murorua suggested that an eight-year prison term, of which two years can be suspended to take into account some of the time that Kambonde has spent in custody while awaiting trial, would be appropriate.He asked the court to order that this sentence should run concurrently with another jail term that Kambonde is serving at the moment.Kambonde was convicted on the main armed robbery charge as having been an accomplice to the crime.He was sentenced to eleven years’ imprisonment in October 2002 – shortly before the start of the Brakwater heist trial – on an armed robbery charge that dated from before the cash-in-transit heist.One of Murorua’s other clients in the trial, Ismael Oaeb, was found guilty on the main robbery charge as an accomplice.The court has in essence found that his crime had been that he had assisted the robbers by renting a house for their use, Murorua remarked when he addressed the court.The more than five years that Oaeb has already spent in custody have been enough to rub in any lesson that was to be learned by Oaeb, Murorua told the court.He asked Acting Judge Silungwe to offer hope to Oaeb by imposing an entirely suspended sentence on him.His third client in the trial, Brandon Similo, who was convicted on the main robbery charge in the form of having been an accessory after the fact to that crime, should receive either a caution and discharge or a suspended sentence, Murorua added.Like Oaeb, Similo has also been in custody for five years and four months already.Similo’s involvement in the robbery had been limited to a short-lived, failed effort to help Ningisa, who the court found was wounded in a shoot-out during the heist, evade arrest, Murorua said.South African Vincent Mabuza was found guilty on a charge of theft on the basis of evidence that money that was stolen in the heist was found in a suitcase belonging to him when he, Oaeb, Similo and another South African, Mike Sandile Mabena, were arrested in Camps Bay, Cape Town, five days after the robbery.”It will be sad if a long term of incarceration is imposed, because a talented young man will temporarily be lost to society – maybe forever,” Mabuza’s lawyer, Jorge Neves, told the court.Saying that the time Mabuza has already spent in custody awaiting the completion of his trial had been punishment enough, Neves asked Acting Judge Silungwe to give him a wholly suspended sentence.Neves reminded the court of some of the wisdom of ancient Greek philosophy as he argued the case of his client.This included a quote by Socrates: “A just penalty disciplines us and makes us more just and cures us of evil.”Mabena, who addressed the court in person, told Acting Judge Silungwe that while the court had found that he had probably been the mastermind behind the heist, he was reiterating that there was no evidence before the court to show that he had played such a role.Mabena asked for a sentence with mercy.The Brakwater robbers had clearly had a murderous intent, shown by their willingness to use any violence to reach their goals, Small argued.He reminded the court that there was evidence that shots had been fired into the roof of the vehicle that was attacked during the robbery, right at the part of the cabin where Kambonde’s colleague and partner on their cash-in-transit trip was sitting.Small did not suggest any definite sentences to Acting Judge Silungwe, but he reminded him that in the only two cash-in-transit robbery cases that have so far been tried in the High Court, sentences ranging between eight years’ imprisonment and terms of 26 years were imposed.With the sentencing, Deputy Prosecutor-General Danie Small told Acting Judge Silungwe, the case before the Acting Judge has reached the most difficult stage that any criminal trial goes through.The seven men who are scheduled to be sentenced at the end of this week have been found guilty in varying capacities in connection with the November 17 2000 robbery, in which N$5,3 million was stolen from a cash-in-transit vehicle that was on its way from Windhoek to Ondangwa.Defence lawyer Winnie Christians, representing Hyacinth James Ningisa and Hendrick Tsibande, who were both found guilty as perpetrators of the cash-in-transit heist and another armed robbery in which a car that was to be used in the heist was stolen at gunpoint from its owner the evening before the heist, was the first of the defence counsel involved in the trial to address Acting Judge Silungwe on Friday.Any sentence should not be so heavy that it could break a person, Christians told the court.He asked the Acting Judge to order that the sentences that Ningisa and Tsibande will be receiving on the two armed robbery charges should run concurrently, while the two other charges on which they were convicted – these are counts of illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition – should be taken together for sentencing.Addressing the court on behalf of Macdonald Kambonde, the driver of the targeted cash-in-transit vehicle who was accused of having been an inside contact for the robbers, defence counsel Lucius Murorua suggested that an eight-year prison term, of which two years can be suspended to take into account some of the time that Kambonde has spent in custody while awaiting trial, would be appropriate.He asked the court to order that this sentence should run concurrently with another jail term that Kambonde is serving at the moment.Kambonde was convicted on the main armed robbery charge as having been an accomplice to the crime.He was sentenced to eleven years’ imprisonment in October 2002 – shortly before the start of the Brakwater heist trial – on an armed robbery charge that dated from before the cash-in-transit heist.One of Murorua’s other clients in the trial, Ismael Oaeb, was found guilty on the main robbery charge as an accomplice.The court has in essence found that his crime had been that he had assisted the robbers by renting a house for their use, Murorua remarked when he addressed the court.The more than five years that Oaeb has already spent in custody have been enough to rub in any lesson that was to be learned by Oaeb, Murorua told the court.He asked Acting Judge Silungwe to offer hope to Oaeb by imposing an entirely suspended sentence on him.His third client in the trial, Brandon Similo, who was convicted on the main robbery charge in the form of having been an accessory after the fact to that crime, should receive either a caution and discharge or a suspended sentence, Murorua added.Like Oaeb, Similo has also been in custody for five years and four months already.Similo’s involvement in the robbery had been limited to a short-lived, failed effort to help Ningisa, who the court found was wounded in a shoot-out during the heist, evade arrest, Murorua said.South African Vincent Mabuza was found guilty on a charge of theft on the basis of evidence that money that was stolen in the heist was found in a suitcase belonging to him when he, Oaeb, Similo and another South African, Mike Sandile Mabena, were arrested in Camps Bay, Cape Town, five days after the robbery.”It will be sad if a long term of incarceration is imposed, because a talented young man will temporarily be lost to society – maybe forever,” Mabuza’s lawyer, Jorge Neves, told the court.Saying that the time Mabuza has already spent in custody awaiting the completion of his trial had been punishment enough, Neves asked Acting Judge Silungwe to give him a wholly suspended sentence.Neves reminded the court of some of the wisdom of ancient Greek philosophy as he argued the case of his client.This included a quote by Socrates: “A just penalty disciplines us and makes us more just and cures us of evil.”Mabena, who addressed the court in person, told Acting Judge Silungwe that while the court had found that he had probably been the mastermind behind the heist, he was reiterating that there was no evidence before the court to show that he had played such a role.Mabena asked for a sentence with mercy.The Brakwater robbers had clearly had a murderous intent, shown by their willingness to use any violence to reach their goals, Small argued.He reminded the court that there was evidence that shots had been fired into the roof of the vehicle that was attacked during the robbery, right at the part of the cabin where Kambonde’s colleague and partner on their cash-in-transit trip was sitting.Small did not suggest any definite sentences to Acting Judge Silungwe, but he reminded him that in the only two cash-in-transit robbery cases that have so far been tried in the High Court, sentences ranging between eight years’ imprisonment and terms of 26 years were imposed.