DA hopes councillor’s killers get maximum sentence

The Democratic Alliance (DA) in the Northern Cape welcomed the guilty verdict of five accused of the murder of DA councillor Johannes Baatjies and his friend Jeffrey Nouse.

“While it feels like just yesterday that Baatjies was so brutally killed, it has already been three years and counting since his death. We are therefore relieved that justice has finally been served,” DA MPL Harold McGluwa said in a statement on Wednesday.

McGluwa said the murder of Baatjies and Nouse had left a vacuum in the lives of their families and unsettled the community of Danielskuil, which was robbed of good governance and a corruption-free councillor.

“His murder has also unnerved fellow councillors serving on the Kgatelopele council. The murder of a councillor, especially when it has political undertones, is in fact a threat to our very democracy. [And] while no prison sentence will ever bring Baatjies back, the DA hopes that his killers get the maximum sentence,” he said.

The MPL said the killers had proven themselves to be “conscienceless criminals and should be permanently removed from society and prevented from inflicting more pain on society”.

“We further trust that history will judge those who escaped adjudication this time around,” he said.

The five men, Richard Hasane, Tshame Frank Baxane, Zonizelo Richard Magawu, Thompson Mncedisi Mphondomisa and Matthews Legodu, accused of kidnapping and murdering Baatjies and Nouse, appeared in court in June 2019, IOL reported.

The five men are Richard Hasane, Tshame Frank Baxane, Zonizelo Richard Magawu, Thompson Mncedisi Mphondomisa and Matthews Legodu.

Baatjies was killed on 17 August 2016 after being kidnapped, forced into the boot of a car and shot multiple times in the head and body while he tried to escape from the moving vehicle; a day before he was to be sworn in as a councillor at Kgatelopele Municipality.

Nouse was shot in the face with a 9mm pistol on the same day and was found seriously injured inside a Ford Ranger along the side of the road.

He was taken to Kimberley’s Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe Hospital and died on 23 August 2016.

(Compiled by Molefe Seeletsa)

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