SA: Execution-style death of Afrikaner farmer revealed
Date Posted: Tuesday 31-Jul-2007
Submitted by Adriana Stuijt:
http://www.africancrisis.co.za/Article.php?ID=15803& The execution-style murder of the Afrikaner farmer Johannes Labuschagne has left his family traumatised and destitute -- magistrate
July 26 2007 - GRAHAMSTOWN, Eastern Cape province, South Africa. A 24-year-old black South African man convicted of killing Indwe farmer Johannes Labuschagne last year on March 3, was given a life-sentence by the Grahamstown High Court on Friday.
Sentencing the murderer, Ludwe Mdyesha for executing the Afrikaner farmer, Judge Jeremy Pickering described the murder "as brutal and callous in the extreme".
"You shot him once and as he crawled away, and despite his pleas for mercy, you followed him and shot him again."
Labuschagne, 61, was murdered on his Vredepoort farm on March 6, 2006, when he returned from Indwe and was ambushed by the three men in his homestead.
He was shot once in the neck and then in the head - execution style while begging for mercy -- and the farmer then died shortly thereafter, enroute to a local hospital.
Mdyesha, 24, is currently alredy serving an eight-year sentence for assault and two counts of unlawfully escaping from custody.
He will have to serve all these sentences together --South African law does not allow any consecutive sentences.
This means that this murderer would be eligible for parole within twenty years.
His two co-accused - Mkululeko Tyiwa, 18, and Unathi Mbwana Thompson, 20, also from Indwe - were sentenced to three years in prison.
None of the men showed any reaction on hearing their fate. There were no expressions of remorse to the bereaved family, and there has been no testimony from the murderer as to why he had still killed the defenceless farmer execution-style wh en the elderly, unarmed man clearly was not putting up any r! esistanc e.
The judge said the murder had had a devastating effect on Labuschagne's family and they were now destitute -- struggling to make ends meet.
"Theirs was a great loss and a traumatic experience. The deceased was a role model to his children."
Mdyesha's application for leave to appeal his conviction and sentence was denied. - Sapa
LINK
http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=15&art_id=nw20070727164600778C586043Categories: murder; SA;
Source Url:
http://www.africancrisis.co.za/Article.php?ID=15803&