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High Court slashes serial housebreaker's 'irrational jail term
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The High Court has overturned a Tsholotsho magistrate's decision that sentenced a 25-year-old serial housebreaker to nearly two decades in prison, describing the punishment as "irrational, excessive and incomprehensible."
Justices Munamato Mutevedzi and Bongani Ndlovu, sitting in Bulawayo, reduced Herman Ndebele's sentence from 18 years and 10 months to a consolidated seven years, to run consecutively with a previously suspended eight-month term. He will now serve seven years and eight months.
Ndebele had been convicted on 15 counts of unlawful entry, pleading guilty to five and being found guilty on nine others. His original sentence was a patchwork of fragmented terms, with suspensions tied to restitution amounts ranging from as little as US$9 or ZAR50 to as much as ZAR45,538.
Justice Mutevedzi criticised the inconsistencies, saying they reflected "thumb-suck sentencing" and a "haphazard" approach. "By any standard, the amounts of prejudice in the cited counts cannot be equated to the suspended terms of imprisonment. The suspension periods were nothing but thumb sucks," he said.
The court found that the magistrate failed to strike a fair balance between punishment and justice. "An offender must not be visited with a sentence that is intended to break him," Mutevedzi said. "Even if by some miracle he managed to restitute the complainants, the effective sentence of 10 years and 4 months was still manifestly excessive. It would leave the offender not only broken but also hopeless."
Although acknowledging Ndebele's status as a repeat offender - he was already serving an activated eight-month sentence from a prior conviction - the judges said the magistrate's approach was "akin to simply rearranging the chairs on the Titanic. It achieved little, if anything."
They concluded that the trial court's sentencing created "a maze" that even "a trained mind would struggle to understand," let alone an unrepresented accused.
Justices Munamato Mutevedzi and Bongani Ndlovu, sitting in Bulawayo, reduced Herman Ndebele's sentence from 18 years and 10 months to a consolidated seven years, to run consecutively with a previously suspended eight-month term. He will now serve seven years and eight months.
Ndebele had been convicted on 15 counts of unlawful entry, pleading guilty to five and being found guilty on nine others. His original sentence was a patchwork of fragmented terms, with suspensions tied to restitution amounts ranging from as little as US$9 or ZAR50 to as much as ZAR45,538.
The court found that the magistrate failed to strike a fair balance between punishment and justice. "An offender must not be visited with a sentence that is intended to break him," Mutevedzi said. "Even if by some miracle he managed to restitute the complainants, the effective sentence of 10 years and 4 months was still manifestly excessive. It would leave the offender not only broken but also hopeless."
Although acknowledging Ndebele's status as a repeat offender - he was already serving an activated eight-month sentence from a prior conviction - the judges said the magistrate's approach was "akin to simply rearranging the chairs on the Titanic. It achieved little, if anything."
They concluded that the trial court's sentencing created "a maze" that even "a trained mind would struggle to understand," let alone an unrepresented accused.
Source - Zimlive
