Sinaye Mposelwa, who pleaded guilty to the murder of Ukrainian tourist Ivan Ivanov, was sentenced to 25 years’ imprisonment by the high court in Cape Town on Monday.
Mposelwa was convicted for the premeditated murder of Ivanov, who was robbed and killed while hiking on the East Fort hiking trail on Chapman’s Peak Drive in 2019.
He was also convicted of robbery with aggravating circumstances after he and his two accomplices, Mathew Giyo and Franklin Isaacs, robbed Ivanov of his belongings.
Mposelwa’s trial was separate from the trial of Giyo and Isaacs after he pleaded guilty to the charges on July 27.
The state alleged that on July 27 2019, the 27-year-old accused, Giyo and Isaacs went on the hiking trail to rob hikers.
“They hid behind bushes armed with knives to rob the hikers. The knives were to be used on any victim who resisted the attempt to rob him or her.
“They came across an unsuspecting Ivanov and demanded his belongings. Ivanov did not co-operate, and they stabbed him 11 times in the chest and back,” said Western Cape National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Eric Ntabazalila.
Ntabazalila said the court found substantial and compelling circumstances to deviate from the prescribed minimum sentences of life imprisonment for premeditated murder and 15 years imprisonment for robbery with aggravating circumstances.
Ntabazalila said the three accused ran away but Mposelwa was stopped by two men who handed him to the police.
“He had bloodied clothes, was found in possession of the deceased’s belongings, was linked to the crime by DNA and was also positively identified during an identity parade,” he said.
Mposelwa pleaded guilty and in his plea explanation, he confessed to fatally stabbing the tourist.
Giyo and Isaacs will appear in court on Monday, August 14.
During argument to convince the court to impose a heavy sentence, prosecutor Adv Thamsanqa Kwetane said Ivanov was a specialist in agriculture and fertilisation from a company based in Switzerland who visited South Africa to impart his skills to employees of the company, which had branches in Johannesburg and Cape Town.
He further argued that the family of the father of two lost a breadwinner and the death also affected the community at large.
He said the community, which apprehended the accused and handed him to the police without taking the law into its own hands, was looking to the court to impose the appropriate sentence.
Handing down the sentence, judge Robert Henney described the accused’s actions as heinous, callous and abhorrent.
“A sentence of life imprisonment is usually imposed when the court is of the view that the offender cannot be rehabilitated and should be permanently removed from society. Or when the inherent seriousness of the offence and circumstances of a particular offence justifies the imposition of such a sentence.
“In this case, however, it cannot be said that the accused is a person that is incapable of rehabilitation. Though it can be argued that this accused was linked to the crime using damning evidence, it cannot be said that he is not remorseful. In my view, there are sufficient reasons to deviate from the sentence in respect of both offences,” Henney said.
He said a sentence of life imprisonment would not be appropriate in this case, but a sentence of long-term imprisonment would send out a clear message that crimes such murder would not be countenanced even if committed by relatively young offenders.
Mposelwa was sentenced to 25 years for murder and 10 years for robbery with aggravating circumstances. The sentences will run concurrently.
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