By Johnathan Paoli
The Pretoria Specialised Commercial Crimes Court has rejected the plea-and-sentence agreement negotiated between prosecutors and alleged crime kingpin Vusimusi “Cat” Matlala, with Magistrate Ignatius du Preez ruling that the proposed effective eight-year prison sentence failed to reflect the seriousness of the offences.
Delivering his judgment on Wednesday, du Preez found that the agreement struck between the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) and Matlala under Section 105A of the Criminal Procedure Act was not a just sentence, despite acknowledging the accused’s willingness to cooperate with investigators.
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“The Court finds that, by taking all counts together for the purpose of sentence, a sentence of 15 years’ imprisonment, of which seven years are suspended, resulting in an effective period of eight years’ incarceration, is not just,” du Preez said.
He said that the court’s role was not merely
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