Four men charged with the murder of Worcester jeweller Charl Munnick have been sentenced to 25 years in prison each.
On Wednesday, the Western Cape High court sentenced Luanda Lonzi, Ndyebo Dotwana, Sicelo Mase and Awonke Ziqu to an effective 25 years imprisonment each for murder, aggravated robbery, possession of unlicensed firearms and the illegal possession of ammunition.
National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson, Eric Ntabazalila, said the four men travelled to Worcester to rob the store in High Street owned by the deceased and his mother, Esme Munnick.
Mase had pretended to be a customer and started talking to one of the employees while Lonzi stood at the door. They took out firearms and started threatening the employees and Esme.
“At the time, the deceased was asleep in a room on top of the store. Ziqu and another tall slim man who had never been identified or arrested in the case joined Lonzi and Mase inside the store,” said Ntabazalila.
After hearing the commotion, an armed Munnick rushed down to the store and a shootout ensued, during which Lonzi shot Munnick in the head and took his firearm.
The skelms took a firearm, cellphone and R60,000.
“The robbery was captured on CCTV and the four robbers were seen coming out of the store and getting into a blue sedan parked in front of the store. The blue sedan which had false number plates at the time of the robbery was traced to another accused who turned into a Section 204 witness,” said Ntabazalila.
The witness told the court that he and Dotwana would often borrow each other's vehicles.
A day before the robbery, Dotwana borrowed his car, which had a Lesotho number plate.
Later, he noticed four unknown men at Dotwana’s yard changing the number plates of his vehicle and installing a number plate with a Worcester registration number.
He said when Dotwana returned his car, he told him to get rid of it as it was involved in a robbery.