V3768 Nicholas Prins

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Prins was a common gangster who killed another gang member on a train in Cape Town. He was a member of the Hard Livings gang and had the gang’s initials, HL,  tattooed behind his left ear.

The evidence against Prins was short and to the point. On 8 July 1986 the deceased, Joseph Moliefe, boarded a train in Cape Town with a colleague, Bernard Grootboom, and headed home. At Netreg Station they disembarked and re-entered the train at another coach. There was standing room only. Grootboom saw Prins near the door. Prins must have said something to Mr Moliefe because Grootboom heard the latter say no. Whatever he had said to Moliefe, Prins responded to this single-word reply by pulling out a knife and stabbing Moliefe once in the chest. He immediately jumped off the train, which was already in motion. Within a short time Moliefe fainted and died at the scene.

The cause of death was a single stab wound between ribs six and seven into the left ventricle of the heart.

A friend of Prins, Miss Tasneem Julyse, told the Court that she knew Prins well and had on 8 July travelled on the same train with him and two other acquaintances of theirs, Shanien Rich and Ronald Middleway. At Netreg Station they disembarked after Moliefe and another man, probably Bernard Grootboom, had entered the same coach. Just as the train pulled off Prins had jumped back on, quickly stabbed Moliefe and jumped off the moving train again. When Prins rejoined them she asked him why he had stabbed the man on the train and he replied that the man was ‘an American’ and that they had stabbed his brother. The Americans were a gang operating in the area. Prins also said that he and Moliefe had argued, but Miss Julyse told the Court that she had heard no quarrel between them.

Prins gave a version entirely at odds with that of Grootboom and Julyse. He told the Court that he had boarded the train in Cape Town with Julyse and had drunk enough liquor during the journey to be intoxicated. When the train stopped with a jerk at Netreg Station he fell against Moliefe. He apologised, but Moliefe swore at him. Three other men who could have been friends of Moliefe then came towards him and told him he was full of liquor. They threw him down and kicked and beat him. He jumped up, took out his knife and stabbed blindly in their direction. He knew he had stabbed someone but did not know whom.

The Court rejected this version out of hand. The version Prins gave to the Court differed from the one he had given to a Magistrate when he was arrested. His counsel called Ronald Middleway as a witness to support his version, but Middleway corroborated Miss Julyse’s evidence to the degree that when Miss Julyse asked Prins why he had stabbed the man on the train he said that the man was ‘an American’.

The Court was unanimous in its finding that Prins had deliberately killed Moliefe because he thought the latter was a member of the gang responsible for the stabbing of his brother. The Court further found that there was an element of cunning in the way Prins had executed his plan. He had waited for the train to start moving, then he jumped on and quickly stabbed Moliefe before jumping off again. The slight effect alcohol might have had on his actions was outweighed by the cunning with which he had achieved his aim and the fact that he had killed a completely innocent man. Although he was relatively young his actions had been related to his gang activities and had been motivated by inherent vice.

He was therefore convicted of murder without any extenuating circumstances and he was sentenced to death on 9 June 1987.

Prins had spent less than six months in the death cells before he was hanged on 8 December 1987. He was twenty-three years old.