Cape Town - The Western Cape High Court has dismissed an appeal by the two men who were convicted of the murders of Ottery pensioners Rugeya and Riedwaan Addinall.
Legal teams appeared before Judge Bryan Hack yesterday, who handed down his judgement briefly, dismissing the appeals of the couple’s gardeners, Gcinlelitha Ngcobelothe and Lwazi Ntsibantsiba, who were sentenced to a combined 117 years in prison by Hack after a lengthy trial.
The couple, both aged 82, were found to have been strangled in their home on January 5, 2019, while some of their possessions had been packed into a vehicle.
During the shocking trial, medical experts revealed that the pensioners had suffered severe bodily trauma and tests revealed that the accused had also shoved Rattex into the elderly woman’s mouth.
The duo turned on each other, each claiming not to have been present during the murders.
Ngcobelothe was sentenced to life imprisonment for each murder and 15 years for robbery, while Ntsibantsiba received 20 years for each of the murders and 12 years for robbery.
In his judgment for sentencing, Hack said he found Ngcobelothe appeared aggressive and intolerant towards the State and made repeated allegations of a conspiracy against him.
He said Ngcobelothe showed no mercy to the helpless pensioners, and did not divert from the prescribed minimum sentence as he handed down the life sentence.
Hack said he took note that Ntsibantsiba was only 20 years old at the time of the crime, but highlighted that he was not familiar with the couple at the time of the murders, and said he showed no remorse and his role in the murders was equally heinous.
In an appeal application lodged by advocate Bash Sibda, Ngcobelothe claims the judge erred by relying on the evidence of State witness Bonita Petersen, saying she could have been influenced by neighbours.
In his judgment on the leave to appeal, Hack said Petersen merely gave evidence of her observations.
“She made no attempt to implicate or even name the persons that she testified were moving on the property.
“Even if the neighbours had their suspicions on the day that the murders happened and even if they communicated this among themselves, none of the evidence of the witnesses to events on the previous day constituted (any attempt) to specifically name the culprits. The application for leave to appeal is dismissed.”
In the second appeal by Ntsibantsiba, who only appealed his conviction, Hack said the appeal was a repeated denial of his involvement in the crimes and that the submission did not clearly identify the reasons for the appeal.
“In this matter, I am of the opinion that no compelling grounds of appeal have been presented.
“In my opinion, there are no prospects of an appeal succeeding,” he said, dismissing the second appeal.