WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2008-12-13 Time: 06:00:07 Posted By: Jan
By Lynnette Johns
Four people found guilty of killing patron of Observatory’s Wild Fig restaurant John Boardman and robbing customers, were each sentenced to 30 years in jail in the Cape High Court on Friday.
In delivering judgment Acting Judge Kenneth Klopper said robbing the popular restaurant had “started as one seed that grew into a massive tree of crime”.
The four – Phumla Qunata, Xoliswa Mavalaliso, Lindile Ngqwala and Lungisa Sijadu – were sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment for Boardman’s murder, 10 years for five counts of robbery with aggravating circumstances, eight years for possession of unlicensed firearms and two years for possession of ammunition. The last two sentences will run concurrently.
| ‘We must never reach a stage where life is considered cheap’ |
Judge Kloppers stopped short of meting out life sentences, the minimum sentence required for a murder, and slashed five years from the mandatory sentence for armed robbery, saying he had to balance the sentence, taking into account the accused’s circumstances, and reflect the gravity of the case and the needs of the community.
The judge said he was not able to say exactly which of the four had fired the fatal shot at Boardman.
Qunata and Mavalaliso were given leave to appeal against their conviction and Mavalaliso also has leave to appeal against her sentence.
Another accused, Xolani Magida, was acquitted earlier after the court found it probable that he had been hijacked by the four.
Four years ago, the four posed as two separate couples eating at the Wild Fig before holding up the patrons and shooting Boardman in the chest.
They would not allow people to call an ambulance and Boardman died in hospital the next day.
They four fled with cellphones, cash, foreign currency, car keys, a chequebook and patrons’ wallets. Witnesses later identified Ngqwala and Sijadu as the attackers. Sijadu’s fingerprint was also found on a glass at the restaurant.
They were later caught in an Opel Monza belonging to Magida’s sister in Mew Way, Khayelitsha, after a high-speed car chase.
The three men got out of the car and ran, but the two women, Qunata and Mavalaliso, were found sitting in car.
They later claimed in court they had been kidnapped by the men to pose as their dates, but this was rejected by the court.
The three men were arrested nearby after a shoot-out with the police. All four are originally from the Eastern Cape and they had come to the Western Cape in search of work.
They all had children who were now being cared for by relatives.
Kloppers said the original idea had been to rob the Wild Fig, followed by the plan to rob the customers.
They would use firearms to overcome possible resistance. The robberies and the fatal shooting of Boardman showed there was no doubt that the operation had been planned, and that this had led to Boardman’s death.
Boardman, who was at the restaurant with his family celebrating his wife Marian’s birthday, had died an untimely and violent death.
Kloppers said although South Africans lived in a society where the loss of life was a daily reality, “we must never reach a stage where life is considered cheap”.
Mavalaliso wiped away tears as the judge passed sentence, and then wailed loudly as the court orderlies shackled her at the end of proceedings.
Marian Boardman said she was relieved the trial was over and that justice had been done.
“I would have preferred the life sentence, but it’s fair,” she said.