How mining executive Thomas Ntuli was coerced into monthly payments of between R50,000 and R300,000, allegedly by Joe 'Ferrari' Sibanyoni's extortion syndicate.
Read more: https://t.co/ABZfFyrUCx
Dear @GovernmentZA
This guy is making deeply offensive remarks about SA and our judiciary, including comparing our country to apartheid-era conditions and insulting a sitting judge.
This is not just “speech”. It raises serious questions of contempt of court and respect for our constitutional order.
We call on @DOJCD_ZA and @HomeAffairsSA to urgently assess the matter and act in accordance with the law and due process.
SA’s institutions cannot be undermined with impunity, regardless of who makes the statement or their status in the country.
This is infuriating guys. This man says our xenophobia is worse than the apartheid we went through, apartheid was nothing but nonsense compared to what they are going through.
Mind you they are simply being asked to stop defecating on pavements
NPA SECURES THE HARSHEST SENTENCE AGAINST CHILD RAPIST AS COURT DECLARES HIM A DANGEROUS CRIMINAL
@NPA_Prosecutes
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has secured one of the harshest sentences possible after the Western Cape Division of the High Court in Cape Town sentenced child rapist Leano Vergotine (42) to five life terms and 78 years’ direct imprisonment.
The court also invoked the provisions of Section 286A of the Criminal Procedure Act, declaring him a dangerous criminal.
The effect of this declaration is that Vergotine has been sentenced to an indefinite period of imprisonment in terms of Section 286B of the Criminal Procedure Act.
The court directed that he be brought back before it after the expiration of a period determined by the court.
Handing down a sentence, Acting Judge Amanda Van Leeve emphasised that there can never be a time when the parole board can consider releasing the accused on parole. He will have to return to court for further judicial scrutiny.
This landmark sentence follows the dedicated work of State Advocate Rene Uys and Warrant Officer Van Rooi, who went beyond the call of duty to ensure that the sexual predator who preyed on children in Ceres was convicted and received a sentence befitting his heinous crimes.
Vergotine was convicted on charges including assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, assault, five counts of rape, multiple counts related to child pornography (creation and use of child pornography), and sexual grooming of children.
He was sentenced to five life sentences and 78 years’ imprisonment, with the court ordering the sentences to run concurrently. His name has also been entered into the National Register of Sexual Offenders.
The State led evidence that the accused attacked minors, both boys and girls, at different times in Ceres. He brutally assaulted them and raped them, while also making videos of their private parts and of the rapes themselves.
Advocate Uys submitted that the State witnesses were credible, giving uncomplicated, chronological, and honest accounts. There were no inherent improbabilities in their evidence, nor did they exaggerate their versions.
The evidence overwhelmingly proved the accused’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt on all counts.
To fully illustrate the accused’s cruelty, the State called Captain Shaun van der Heever, Section Commander of the Investigative Psychology Section in the Western Cape, a Forensic Profiler and Behavioural Advisor.
Captain van der Heever concluded in his report that Vergotine is a sexual predator who had refined his ability to exploit minor victims for his sexual gratification. He groomed and manipulated the victims to gain their trust and recorded his crimes to relive his fantasies.
At the time of these offences, Vergotine was on parole after serving a sentence of 15 years’ imprisonment for the rape of a minor boy in 2009.
He committed these new crimes within six months of his release. He has a long criminal history dating back to 1998 (when he was still a minor), with 16 previous convictions for offences including housebreaking with intent to steal and theft, indecent assault, escaping from custody (three times), illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition, robbery, malicious injury to property, and rape.
In the argument on the sentence, Adv Uys highlighted that Vergotine not only raped the complainants but also recorded himself doing so. “This is what distinguishes this accused from other rapists,” she said. “He created a permanent digital footprint, and we do not know where or when the victims will be confronted with these videos in their lifetime.
Men can be something else. My colleague forgot to wish her new boyfriend a happy birthday, so she called him the next day to apologize. Then he did the exact same thing to her,her birthday was on Sunday, and he only called her yesterday. When she asked why, he said he forgot.