farmer
20 February 2007
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has been following media reports on
the case of the State vs Nel who was sentenced in the Thabazimbi Regional Court
for the shooting of a young boy that he mistook for a dog.
The NPA has noted the concerns expressed by certain sections of the public,
and being sensitive to those sentiments, Advocate M Mpshe, Deputy National
Director of Public Prosecutions and Advocate S Mzinyathi, Director of Public
Prosecutions have outlined the charges and sentence below.
Charges:
The accused was charged on the count of murder but subsequently convicted of
culpable homicide.
The court convicted the accused of culpable homicide as it found that there
was no intention on the part of the accused, but rather that the accused
negligently caused the death of the deceased.
The court came to a finding further that negligence was minimal although the
state placed it on record that the degree of negligence was higher.
It cannot be argued that the conviction of culpable homicide is incorrect,
having read the statement of the witnesses.
The state is then satisfied with the conviction of culpable homicide.
Sentence:
The sentence imposed is that of R20 000 or five years imprisonment, half of
which is suspended.
It has been noted that the sentence has been regarded as lenient by the
community at large.
It needs to be mentioned that there are other factors that the court has
taken into consideration.
The court has made a finding on the weight of negligence.
The emotional accused took the deceased to hospital and in the process,
applied mouth-to-mouth resuscitation; another relationship is that it was not
disputed that the accused knew this boy very well.
All the witnesses confirmed that the accused was looking for a wild dog on
his property when he saw movement in tall grass. It was confirmed that the
attire of the deceased matched the description of the dog.
The accused shot in the direction of the movement in the tall grass and it
had transpired that he had unfortunately shot the boy.
Enquiries:
Lucinda Moonieya
Cell: 082 926 7738
E-mail: media@npa.gov.za
Issued by: National Prosecuting Authority
20 February 2007
