Imposing a life sentence for the "callous and cowardly" August 1998 murder of Rosetta farm manager Simon Buntting, who was bludgeoned to death with a hammer, a high court judge said it was a sad reflection on the criminal justice system that the killer and his companion were released on parole a month before the incident. Justice McCall and two assessors convicted Kenneth Gcaleka, 24, of murder and robbery with aggravating circumstances for bludgeoning Buntting, 66, four times on his head with a 4lb hammer after breaking into his farmhouse on August 24. His body was found lying under his duvet in his blood-soaked bed the following day. A life sentence for murder accompanied by robbery with aggravating circumstances is now mandatory in terms of the 1997 Criminal Law Amendment Act, unless a court finds there are compelling circumstances which require a lesser sentence. Judge McCall said on Tuesday that in the present case he found a life sentence to be "wholly appropriate". For the robbery, he sentenced Gcaleka to 15 years' imprisonment in terms of the same Act.
Gcaleka's brother, Themba Gcaleka, 21, who was found guilty only of theft of goods from Buntting's home, was jailed for five years. The younger man was not found guilty of the murder and robbery charges since there was no evidence to contradict his own testimony that he had not anticipated resistance, that he did not enter the bedroom where Buntting was killed and had not taken part in the assault, but instead had told his brother to stop "quarrelling" with Buntting.
Source: IoL
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