V3663 Joseph Gcabashe |
51 |
Four men, all in their early twenties, broke into the home of Mr and Mrs Jeffreys and robbed the elderly couple. In the process they injured Mrs Jeffreys and killed Mr Jeffreys.
Mr and Mrs Jeffreys owned and ran the Oribi Gorge Hotel about twenty-four kilometres inland from Port Shepstone. Mr Jeffreys was eighty-one years old and suffered from emphysema. During the night of 4-5 June 1986 the couple went to bed at about midnight after Mrs Jeffreys had unlocked one of the external doors to enable an employee of the hotel to come in early the next morning to light the fire in the kitchen.
At about two o’clock in the morning four men wearing balaclava masks burst into the bedroom and attacked the old couple in their beds. One of the intruders stabbed Mr Jeffreys in the back and Mrs Jeffreys suffered a cut on the ring and little fingers that severed the tendons and rendered those fingers permanently useless. Mr Jeffreys had a revolver, which he raised towards the attackers but did not fire. He was overwhelmed and disarmed. The intruders then ransacked the room. One took Mrs Jeffreys’ purse, which had two hundred or three hundred rand in it. They removed the safe keys, the kitchen keys and another set of safe keys from the purse.
Mrs Jeffreys asked what they wanted and one of the intruders replied, ‘We want money and firearms.’ She offered to show them where the money was. One of them held a knife to her back and threatened to kill her if she made any noise. She led them towards the veranda and pushed Mr Jeffreys ahead of her. Once the intruders were outside she slammed the door shut and they ran off into the night. Mrs Jeffreys telephoned her son Kenneth who lived about a hundred metres away. He, in turn, called the police. The police put Mr Jeffreys in their car and drove at speed to the Port Shepstone Provincial Hospital. By the time they arrived Mr Jeffreys was dead.
He had died of a stab wound high up on his back between the right shoulder blade and the spine, penetrating his right lung and causing it to collapse. The progressive accumulation of blood in his chest cavity had led to an inability to breathe. In effect he had died of a lack of oxygen. There was a small wound on his left shoulder, probably inflicted with a screwdriver. He had defensive wounds on his forearms consistent with a struggle and with being held by the arms.
The four accused were rounded up quickly. Their campaign had not been well planned. They had made their intentions clear to local workers and they had left vital clues at the scene. The way they fled when Mrs Jeffreys slammed the veranda door in their faces also testified to a bumbling approach to robbery. They wore balaclavas to avoid recognition, but one of them left a clear palm print on the doorframe at the hotel.
At the trial they all recanted, saying they had been tortured by the police and told what to say. They gave most improbable, inconsistent versions of what had happened. There was insufficient evidence against Skofu Dlamini and he was found not guilty. Joseph Gcabashe was linked to the scene by his palm print and possession of the keys they had taken from the scene. He had also admitted to the Magistrate that he had participated in the robbery. The Court convicted him of murder, housebreaking with intent to rob and robbery, with aggravating circumstances. Jerome Gcaba and Bhekisisa Dlamini were similarly convicted on the strength of their admissions to the Magistrate. Gcabashe and Gcaba were also convicted of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm to Mrs Jeffreys.
The Court found that there were no extenuating circumstances as far as Gcabashe and Gcaba’s conviction on the murder count was concerned and, by a majority decision, held that there were extenuating circumstances as far as Bhekisisa Dlamini was concerned. He appeared to have taken a lesser role and may have acted under the influence of the other accused.
On 12 December 1986 the Court sentenced Gcabashe and Gcaba to death on the murder count. Then, almost in the same breath, the Judge sentenced them to death on the housebreaking charge also. The Judge sentenced Gcabashe to eighteen months imprisonment for the assault upon Mrs Jeffreys, and Gcaba to two years. Bhekisisa Dlamini received ten years imprisonment on the murder charge, eighteen months imprisonment for the assault and eight years imprisonment on the housebreaking charge.
The Appeal Court confirmed the death sentences on the murder count but determined that the death sentences on the housebreaking charge could not stand because the Judge had made an elementary error. The Appeal Court therefore set aside the death sentences on the housebreaking charge and substituted in their place fifteen years imprisonment.
Gcabashe and Gcaba were hanged on 10 December 1987. Gcabashe was twenty-three years old. Gcaba was twenty-four.