Ayanda Christopher Mavikela, 27, has been sentenced to life in prison for his "brazen and callous" murder of Kenton-on-Sea businessman Juan Jansen.
Ayanda Christopher Mavikela, 27, has been sentenced to life in prison for his "brazen and callous" murder of Kenton-on-Sea businessman Juan Jansen.
Grahamstown Judge Jeremy Pickering sentenced Mavikela to life imprisonment and a further 30 years in two separate 15-year sentences (robbery with aggravating circumstances and possession of an unlicensed semi-automatic fire-arm) on Wednesday afternoon.
Mavikela and Monwabisi Yozana Rafani, 29, were arrested in December 2009, three weeks after the murder of Jansen.
Jansen was ambushed in broad daylight on his way to the bank. His wife, Nelmarie, who was five months pregnant, went with him to deposit their store's weekend takings of R111 852.40 in cash, and cheques worth R485.10.
Mavikela, from Mdantsane in East London, and Rafani, from Walmer Location in Port Elizabeth, both appeared in the Eastern Cape High Court, Grahamstown, in connection with the murder of the businessman.
Mavikela was tried alone, however, because Rafani wanted to be represented by his own lawyer, and not legal aid.
Judge Pickering postponed his case for July 25, when Rafani hoped to have sufficient funds from a pending Roads Accident Fund payout to hire a lawyer. Rafani was involved in an accident a while back.
Beginning on Tuesday last week, Mavikela was tried alone in an almost empty court room. Only a handful of journalists, the Jansen's family, including Nelmarie, and two elderly men from Mavikela's family witnessed proceedings.
As the case progressed, Mavikela seldom looked at his own family, but would often look at Jansen's family with an emotionless stare.
Although Judge Pickering described Mavikela's actions as extremely serious, Mavikela appeared not to feel the weight of opinion, frequently chatting and laughing with correctional services officials and police officers during breaks.
Judge Pickering also described Mavikela's testimony as unreliable and contradictory, while applauding the other two witnesses, Nelmarie Jansen and Kathleen Hayes, as credible witnesses. "I submit that he (Mavikela) is a contradictory and evasive witness," said Judge Pickering.
He said the robbery had been carefully planned, as it involved firearms. The actions of Mavikela and his accomplice had been "brazen and callous", as they had ambushed a couple who posed no threat to them, and that their motive was nothing but greed.
Mavikela, whose children are 5 and 3, made an application for leave to appeal. This was rejected by Judge Pickering.
Despite this, Helen McCallum who represented Mavikela said they would petition the Chief Justice for leave to appeal. In response, Judge Pickering said he doubted another judge would give Mavikela a lesser sentence. Instead, he said, the sentence might be harsher.
