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MAN JAILED 33YRS FOR TAXIMAN’S MURDER

10/03/2021 08:30:00 BY KWANELE DLAMINI

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MBABANE – The Mozambican man who killed a taximan and dumped his body next to the road has been sentenced to 33 years imprisonment.

Paito Nyampiri, who was 18 years old when he committed the murder and other offences, was sentenced yesterday by Judge Nkululeko Hlophe. Judge Hlophe said he had no hesitation that Nyampiri would have had to be given a capital sentence if it were not for the fact that he was found to be immature when he committed the offences. Capital punishment is also known as the death penalty.

Accomplice

Nyampiri was in the company of a companion, who was turned into an accomplice witness, when they hired and shot the taximan, Victor Ncabeni Dlamini, in the back of the head as he drove the taxi, a Honda Fit. The convict was believed to have accepted an order from a Mozambican soldier for the delivery of the car to him. He dumped the taximan’s body next to the road and stole the vehicle and other belongings of the deceased. The Mozambican was found guilty of murder, robbery, theft, unlawful possession of a firearm and live rounds of ammunition and being in the country without a valid permit. For murder, he was sentenced to 18 years, 15 years for robbery and five years for theft. He was also sentenced to five years with an option of a fine of E5 000 for unlawful possession of a firearm, three years or E3 000 for unlawful possession of live rounds of ammunition and six months with an option to pay a fine of E600 for being in the country illegally. Judge Hlophe ordered that the murder and robbery sentences should run concurrently. The other sentences, according to the court, will run concurrently with the sentence for theft. The court also ordered that the murder and robbery sentences, which are to run concurrently, should run consecutively with the sentences that run concurrently with the theft sentence. In total, it means Nyampiri will spend 33 years in prison. The period he spent in custody, according to the court, will be taken into account when computing the sentence. Judge Hlophe said Dlamini was killed like an animal. The judge said the taxi man was not asked to surrender his car and he did not refuse to do anything he had been commanded to do, which could have justified Nyampiri and his companion’s action.

“He lost his life because the accused and the person he was with felt they should kill him in order for them to appropriate his car and cellphone to themselves. This court needs to pass a sentence that sends an unequivocal message to all and sundry that such conduct has no place in this country and that it should be nipped in the bud,” said the judge. Judge Hlophe said he had no doubt that the sentence would deter other would-be offenders from even daring to contemplate the commission of this offence. The judge pointed out that even the manner in which the body of the deceased was disposed of invoked disgust. “Having mercilessly and callously killed an innocent man in the manner described, they discarded his corpse by the roadside like they were getting rid of a carcass. This exposed the accused and his accomplice as miscreants or animals that have no place among human beings and thus deserving to be put away from among others for a very long time.”

The judge said matters entailing the loss of innocent lives through senseless violence were on the rise and were prevalent in societies, calling upon the court to pass sentences that were harsher than normal in order to send an unequivocal message “that such conduct is not welcome in court society.” The seriousness of the matter, according to the court, was complicated by the fact that the murder and robbery in question were committed against a taxi operator who had done no wrong but believed the two to be genuine customers who required his services. The court also noted that incidences where taxi operators were hijacked, robbed of their cars and belongings or even killed were prevalent and were growing at an alarming rate.

Special

“This necessitates that our courts pay particular and special attention towards this growing scourge with a view to exterminating it. This particular and special attention should entail the imposition of harsher-than-normal sentences on the perpetrators of such crimes so that the taxi services sector can continue to freely and competently provide this invaluable service to the public knowing that predators like the accused have been excluded from society.” Judge Hlophe said the murder and robbery were premeditated. He said the evidence showed the extent to which the accused and his accomplice went into in preparing and planning the said offences. For instance, Judge Hlophe said, it was agreed at the planning stage that as the robbery was being committed, the driver of the taxi was to be killed, and the plan was carried into effect. “As a consequence, we now have not only the senseless death of the taxi operator whose car is, instead of at least being used to earn his family an income for an improved lifestyle, rotting away while parked and kept as an exhibit awaiting finalisation of the matter in court. Again, the need for a harsher-than-normal sentence is being underscored.”