Truck driver and pensioner sentenced on dagga charges

A LONG-DISTANCE truck driver and an allegedly penniless pensioner met different fates when two trials in which they were facing dagga-related charges ended with their sentencing in the Windhoek Regional Court on Friday.

The trial of South African truck driver Andile Samuel Mraji (46), who lives in Cape Town’s Khayelitsha township, ended with Magistrate Sarel Jacobs sending him to prison for an effective five years. Mraji had pleaded guilty to a charge that he dealt in 82 kg of cannabis, valued at N$246 000, in Windhoek on May 7 this year.In another trial before Regional Court Magistrate Dinnah Usiku, the man in the dock was Samuel Yisaki, a 79-year-old pensioner from Katutura. His trial ended with the court sentencing him to a fine of N$1 000 or a year in prison.Yisaki pleaded guilty to a charge of possession of prohibited dependence-producing drugs. He admitted that he was caught with 48 kg of cannabis, valued at N$144 000, at his house in Katutura on February 16 2006.In a written plea explanation that Mraji gave to the court, he related that he met an old friend of his in Johannesburg on May 5. The friend asked him to transport three bags of dagga to Namibia in his truck, and he agreed to do so, he stated.He claimed he agreed ‘because of my financial situation of being the only breadwinner with five school-going children’.Mraji stated that he was supposed to be paid N$2 000 once he had delivered the dagga in Windhoek to a person called Goodman.He was waiting for Goodman in the city’s Prosperita area on May 7 when members of the Namibian Police’s Drug Law Enforcement Unit swooped on him and discovered the dagga he had with him, Mraji informed the court.He also stated that he knew he was committing a crime when he brought the dagga to Namibia.Magistrate Jacobs sentenced Mraji to seven years’ imprisonment, of which two years were suspended for five years on condition that he is not convicted of dealing in or possessing prohibited drugs during the period of the suspension.Mraji was represented by defence lawyer Boris Isaacks, while Simba Nduna prosecuted.With Yisaki’s sentencing, Magistrate Usiku said it was amazing that he got hold of such a large quantity of cannabis in the first place. She commented that one could only assume that a syndicate had a hand in the matter, because at Yisaki’s age it could not be expected that he had played much of a role in coming into possession of the dagga.At his advanced age, Yisaki should have realised that he was expected to set an example for young people in Namibia, the Magistrate told him. He failed to do that, she said.She noted that the court was never told what Yisaki intended to do with such a large quantity of dagga. He only accepted responsibility for having been in possession of the substance.Although he is advanced in age, Yisaki still had to be punished, Magistrate Usiku said.She was told that Yisaki is a pensioner who cannot afford to pay a fine. Yisaki however still seemed to have enough money available to get a noted defence lawyer like Sisa Namandje to represent him during his trial, the Magistrate remarked.She sentenced him to pay a fine of N$1 000 or go to prison for a year. On a request from Namandje she gave Yisaki time until July 5 to pay the fine.Public Prosecutor OJ Lino represented the State during Yisaki’s trial.