In tale of two dead sons, NPA says light sentence for Coert Kruger must be challenged
Two fathers each accidentally killed their sons, but one got several years in jail and the other was let off with a warning.
Sibusiso Tshabalala, left, and Coert Johannes Kruger, right. Pictures: Tracy Lee Stark and Jannie du Plessis
The director of public prosecutions (DPP) has been granted leave to appeal a sentence of a caution and discharge imposed by a magistrate on a Vanderbijlpark man who shot his son dead in March this year.
Coert Johannes Kruger, 51, apparently mistook Coert Johannes Kruger Junior for a burglar and shot him dead at his mother’s house.
Kruger Junior was on the roof of his grandmother’s house when the incident happened.
Kruger explained that he reacted to an alarm activation at his mother’s house and met a security guard from the security company, which had called him.
After an investigation, Kruger and the security guard located a person on the roof and he immediately shot at him, only to realise later it was his son.
Kruger pleaded guilty to the charge of murder. News24 reported in September that he was released on a warning and would serve no jail time.
The death of his son had been punishment enough, said magistrate Robert Button.
National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) Gauteng spokesperson Phindi Mjonondwane said on Thursday the director of public prosecutions in Pretoria viewed the sentence of caution and discharge imposed on Kruger as “shockingly inappropriate”.
Mjonondwane said the DPP had successfully applied for leave to appeal the sentence. She said the appeal on sentence would be enrolled and be heard on a date still to be determined.
Mjonondwane said the NPA was of the view that Button committed a serious misdirection by not referring to the most recent sentence in June, where under similar circumstances a father was sentenced to 10 years, wholly suspended for five years.
Last year, Sibusiso Emmanuel Tshabalala shot and killed his son, Luyanda, after he knocked on the window of the car in which Tshabalala was sleeping. Tshabalala at the time believed he was being robbed.
“The great disparity in the two sentences under similar circumstances, both in the Gauteng division, does not augur well for legal precedent. The principle of stare decisis is sacrosanct in that the law expounded in one case should be followed in deciding cases with similar material facts, hence the NPA could not leave this matter unchallenged,” said Mjonodwane.
Republished from Sedibeng Ster
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