A married man who has been in detention for three years pending judgment for housebreaking and robbery was finally sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment.
Ten of the years were suspended and he will have to serve five years.
Freeman Khumalo admitted to the crimes after his private judicare representative withdrew from the cases and following his dismissal of previous legal representatives. He was sentenced by the Alexandra Magistrates’ Court for the offences he committed in Bryanston on June 2015 and in Riverclub in December of the same year.
Eight years for the Riverclub incident were suspended to five years while 10 years for the Bryanston incident were suspended for five years.
He was identified through fingerprints at Jeppestown Police Station where he was arrested in 2016 again for housebreaking and robbery. Thereafter, he seemingly delayed the hearings in the two cases by changing state legal representation until the last judicare representative left him in the lurch.
His fingerprints were found on a television stand at the Riverclub home which was robbed of a plasma television, sound system, remotes, cell phones, watches, guns, jackets and shoes all worth R350 000. Security guards alerted to the break-in by an alarm at night, went to the home in the absence of the owner. They found the lights in the house on and checked the area along with the domestic worker but couldn’t detect anything missing. They then left and the domestic worker contacted the owner in Cape Town in the morning who asked her to check the house. She went upstairs and found the items missing, prompting an investigation which picked up the accused’s fingerprints.
The second set of fingerprints were found at a Bryanston home where a family was robbed of a laptop, wedding bands, bracelets, jewellery, cell phones and watches. The accused and three others who are still at large, accosted a family member as she went out to give food to a worker. They brought her and the worker into the house and ordered the family to lie on the floor. They demanded money and ransacked the house before leaving with the items. An informer tipped off the investigators leading to Khumalo’s arrest at Jeppestown Police Station.
Related articles:
Six suspects to appear in Alexandra Magistrates’ Court for conspiracy to commit robbery
