Economy suffers greatly as a result of business robberies - insurance assessor
|||While the rest of the gang who robbed the Sterns in Irene Village Mall in August 2009 are still on the run, one of the robbers who was responsible for shooting dead managing director of Coin Security, Jaco Pretorius, was yesterday sentenced to life imprisonment, as well as a further 35 years.
Zwakahle Mavundla, 34, was convicted on several charges, including one of murder.
It was found that he was one of four robbers who on the morning of August 5, 2009, went to Irene Village Mall to rob the jewellery store. Three of them entered Sterns, while the fourth man stood outside by the getaway car.
Inside the store, Mavundla pointed a firearm at the saleswoman and ordered her to fill bags with jewellery. The gang were interrupted when a security guard came into the store, but they assaulted him and also robbed him. He was made to kneel down, while the bags were filled with jewellery.
The security guard managed to escape and he sounded the alarm. The robbers fled the store, leaving the bags behind.
They got away with jewellery worth about R7 000.
The gang ran through the mall, to the parking lot, where they threatened a guard with death if he did not open the gate. Three of the robbers managed to get into the getaway car, but Mavundla, who was according to witnesses, a bit chubby, lagged behind.
He ran down Nelmapius Road, onto the intersection of the R21, he tried to wave cars down. Pretorius, who was driving past with a colleague, tried to stop Mavundla. The robber stood at the passenger window and fired a shot, killing Pretorius.
He then hid under a bridge, where he was arrested by security guards and a group of people who followed him from the mall.
All of them identified him as one of the robbers and the man who shot Pretorius.
Mavundla claimed he was at the wrong place, at the wrong time. He claimed he was waiting for a friend who was supposed to pick him up for a work interview.
An insurance assessor for the Foschini Retail Group (under which Sterns falls), Jacob van Niekerk, testified in aggravation of sentence that the economy was suffering greatly because of robberies and burglaries at business premises.
It was not only the financial loss of replacing items, but the enormous emotional trauma suffered by the employees who fell victim to crime. Van Niekerk said these people are left traumatised and they need to receive counselling.
Although he did not want to divulge statistics regarding the financial losses companies suffer through crime, he said it ran into many millions.
These crimes affect all of us, he said, as it was “a bottomless pit.”
Judge Jody Kollapen, in sentencing Mavundla, said the robbery was well executed with little regard for the victims. The gang walked into the mall with firearms. He added that it remained an injustice that the rest of the gang had not been not brought to book and said that the killing of Pretorius was brutal, callous and unnecessary.
The judge said Pretorius was willing to help apprehend a suspect and he had paid with his life for this. He said Pretorius, like many others in our country, could have refused to become involved.
Pretoria News Weekend