Family of Lucky Dube elated by guilty verdict

JOHANNESBURG – Slain reggae musician Lucky Dube’s family clapped as the three men accused of his murder were found guilty in the High Court in Johannesburg on Tuesday.

Judge Seun Moshidi found Sifiso Mhlanga, Julius Gxowa and Mbuti Mabe guilty of shooting and killing Dube during a botched hijacking in Rosettenville on October 18 2007.’What happened to uBaba [Dube] was really traumatic to all of us, but we are happy that his killers have been found guilty. We know they are being brought to book and we can now have closure,’ said Dube’s son, Thokozani.He, along with his sister Nonkululeko, were present when their father was killed. They were bidding their father farewell on the driveway of their uncle’s home following a dinner outing when the incident happened.Surrounded by family members and Dube’s band members in white t-shirts with the reggae star’s face emblazoned upon them, the emotional Dube junior said he hoped his father’s killers would get a ‘proper sentence’.Dube’s wife Zanele was too emotional to talk to the media. With just a wave of a hand, she dismissed all questions posed to her regarding her feelings on the guilty verdict.The three men were also found guilty on charges related to the hijacking of a Mercedes Benz in Jules Street, Johannesburg, two days after Dube’s murder.Mabe was found guilty on an additional charge relating to the hijacking of a green VW Polo used in Dube’s botched hijacking.’In fact, as a driver, without the Polo, it would have been impossible to commit the crime,’ said Judge Moshidi.Mhlanga and Gxowa received a guilty verdict in relation to a charge of possessing an unlicensed firearm, while Mhlanga was found guilty for possessing ammunition.He said the court had proven the guilt of the men in charges he convicted them on ‘beyond any reasonable doubt’.Moshidi ordered that the weapons seized by police when the men were arrested in October 21 2007 be forfeited to the state.He exempted Thabo Maruping, a man initially arrested with the three who later turned state witness, from further prosecution.Before the case was adjourned for arguments in mitigation of sentence, State prosecutor Lethabo Mashiane asked that two of the accused be held at the Johannesburg Central Police Station’s high risk security detention centre, rather than at Johannesburg Prison where they had been kept thus far.The request came after Mabe and Mhlanga assaulted a police officer in a foiled bid to escape from the court on Tuesday.This was not the only security measure taken following the incident where the two men assaulted a police officer with a brick.Judge Moshidi ordered that everyone entering the court be searched.’I suggest, in view of this development that security should be beefed up. People going into this court should be searched and court orderlies must do their work … They have been too relaxed,’ Moshidi said.When judgement resumed following a one-hour delay caused by the incident, more than 15 heavily armed police officers, along with a handful of correctional services officials and three court orderlies, kept watch over the three men like hawks.Others stood on stairways and all the four entrances leading into the packed courtroom.Mabe and Mhlanga, who listened to their guilty verdict in bloodied swabs covering head injuries sustained on Tuesday, have since been charged with attempted escape from lawful custody and assault.The police officer they hit with a brick is reported to be recovering well. ‘He had cuts on both the lower and upper lip and he has been stitched up,’ said investigating officer Captain Wiseman Siphungu. – Nampa-Sapa

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