VUYO MKIZE
“HIJACKING is endemic in our country and those who strip the stolen motor vehicles play an important role.”
These were the words of Johannesburg High Court Judge Naren Pandya yesterday as he began sentencing three Soweto thugs convicted of stripping a stolen taxi of its parts in October 2010.
Ayanda Mvelase, 18, Siphesihle Mabizela, 20, and Mbuso Zungu, 20, stood in the dock with their heads bowed.
They were found guilty of receiving a Toyota Hilux minibus which was stolen from a taxi driver and used as a getaway car after a supermarket robbery in Zola.
Mvelase, Mabizela and Zungu, who lived at Nancefield hostel, have been in police custody for 15 months.
They were sentenced to four years’ imprisonment each, with one year of the sentence suspended for five years, on condition that they were not convicted of disorderly behaviour.
The judge said the accused, though young, had not shown themselves to be immature or under peer pressure.