Supreme Court orders new trial for man convicted of murder and rape in 2007

A man who was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2007 on charges of murder and rape will get another opportunity to argue his case in court. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court of Appeal set aside his conviction and ordered that the case be heard again in the High Court.

Richard Negondeni was arrested more than 13 years ago, following the death of Ms Ntsombeni Makhanye. Her badly decomposed body was found on 11 July 2002 in the bushes at Ha-Dumasi near Thohoyandou. Negondeni was accused of raping his victim and then using a stone to kill her. He then allegedly robbed her of her cell phone. He also had to face another charge of rape for an incident that happened in February 1999.

When the matter eventually made it to the High Court on 19 February 2007, Negondeni was not satisfied with the legal representative that the State had appointed. The presiding officer, Acting Judge Renke, asked him about his apparent uneasiness and Negondeni complained that he had not had the opportunity to consult properly with the legal representative.

Following some efforts to get the defendant and his legal representative to confer, the court then decided that the matter should be postponed to the next day to give Negondeni the proper time to discuss the case. The legal representative indicated that he would not be available the next day and the court then arranged for another legal representative to take over the defence.

When the trial resumed the next day, Judge Renke asked Negondeni whether he was satisfied with his new legal representative, to which he answered affirmatively. He then proceeded to plead guilty to the four charges and, in a written statement, explained some of the circumstances. In the statement, he describes how he met the deceased at the shopping complex in Thohoyandou. She accompanied him to Ha-Dumasi, where they went into the bushes. Negondeni admits that he forced her to have sexual intercourse with him. He alleges that they quarrelled and he hit her on the head with a stone. “She fell down and never spoke again. I then got shocked, frustrated and confused,” he states.

Negondeni also admitted guilt to the separate charge of rape that occurred in 1999. In this incident, he met the victim at a shopping centre in Thohoyandou and they went to Block F, not far from Thohoyandou Technical School. He forced her to have sexual intercourse with him in the bushes near the school. The incident was reported to the police the same day and he was arrested.

Judge Renke posed a few questions to Negondeni to get some clarity on issues, but these were mostly as to the size of the stone used to kill the deceased. The court then proceeded to find him guilty on all four counts. He was sentenced to life imprisonment on the count of murder, ten years on each of the rape charges and two years for the theft of the cell phone.

The Supreme Court of Appeal was asked to review the matter and set aside the conviction, based on the irregularities that occurred. The legal representatives for Negondeni argued that he had never had a fair trial and that he had never been informed of the implications of his guilty plea.

Judge JA Willis, in concurrence with judges Leach and Mathopo, agreed and in the ruling made public on Tuesday said that the requirements of Section 112 of the Criminal Procedure Act had not been followed. Judge Willis referred to case law and said “…the court should be satisfied not only that the accused committed the act in question, but that he committed it unlawfully and with the necessary mens rea (intention or knowledge)”. The Supreme Court judges agreed that it was not clear from the available records whether Negondeni had acted with the intent of killing the deceased. The accused had also at no stage during the trial been warned by the court that, if convicted, he faced the risk of life imprisonment.

“The right of every person to a fair trial is a constitutional one. That right was infringed and for that reason the conviction and sentence cannot be allowed to stand,” reads the judgment.

The Supreme Court took into account the interests of the family and friends of the victims, stating that the appellant (Negondeni) cannot be allowed to walk free without further ado. The court instead opted for a trial de novo, which means that a new trial will have to take place, with a new judge presiding.

Negondani’s legal representative in the Supreme Court of Appeal was local lawyer SO Ravele. He expressed satisfaction that the conviction of his client had been set aside, but felt that no new trial should be conducted. “We are of the view that the Supreme Court of Appeal did not properly exercise its judicial discretion to remit the matter for a hearing de novo,” he said. According to Ravele, they are awaiting instructions from their client to consider taking the case to the Constitutional Court.

News - Date: 05 October 2015

Anton van Zyl

Anton van Zyl has been with the Zoutpansberger and Limpopo Mirror since 1990. He graduated from the Rand Afrikaans University (now University of Johannesburg) and obtained a BA Communications degree. He is a founder member of the Association of Independent Publishers.

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