Judge throws the book at Gupta gang duo — seven life sentences for each of seven murders

18 Apr 2024

Calling their actions ‘atrocious’, a Cape Town judge imposed ‘sentences that are proportionate to the criminals, the crime and the interests of society’ on two Gupta gang members, who ambushed a house full of partygoers in Khayelitsha in 2020, killing seven people.

On Thursday, 18 April 2024, the Western Cape High Court sentenced two leading members of the Gupta gang from Khayelitsha to life imprisonment for each of the seven murders they committed in 2020. Several others were wounded in the attack, including a six-year-old girl.

Delivering the judgment, Judge Daniel Thulare said there was no doubt that society expected the criminal justice system “to demonstrate satisfaction of the desire for protection from gratuitous criminality executed with boldness and without shame and with confidence and an untouchable illusion”.

“It is the courts that should take criminals back to reality by imposition of sentences that are proportionate to the criminals, the crime and the interests of society blended with a measure of mercy,” Thulare said.

“The violence displayed by the accused was simply atrocious, unnecessary and served to increase the blameworthiness of the accused and his companions,” he said.

Gcinithemba “MDriver” Beja and Fundile “Phiri” Maseti, members of a violent extortion gang called the Guptas, a breakaway group from a similar gang called Boko Haram, stormed a Khayelitsha house which was operating as an illegal liquor outlet and began shooting randomly in the early hours of Sunday morning, 7 March 2020.

Beja and Maseti each received seven life sentences for each of the seven murders. They were also each sentenced to five years in prison for each of three attempted murders, 15 years each for the possession of an unlicensed firearm, and another 15 years each for unlawful possession of ammunition. The sentences will run concurrently.

The judgment comes a day after a trail of shootings left eight people dead in Harare, Khayelitsha.

Read more in Daily Maverick: Morning of murders — eight people shot dead in Khayelitsha

Gang feud

In the March 2020 shooting, five people died at the scene and another died shortly afterwards in hospital. Later that fateful night, locals found the body of the seventh victim, a 34-year-old man named in the judgment as “Ntera”, who was the owner of the house and an erstwhile friend of the accused.

The attack in Khayelitsha resulted from a fallout in the battle for extortion turf, which had caused bad blood between the accused and Ntera.

The accused, with others, ambushed Ntera’s birthday party at his home, which was attended by patrons of the liquor outlet as well as Ntera’s friends and relatives.

The victims at the party were innocent attendees who were not involved in gangsterism or extortion, the judge remarked.

Ntera’s daughter, six years old at the time, was not only shot at but also kicked by one of the shooters.

“The attack was intended to send a message to anyone who crossed the path of the Gupta gang, that it was not only the betrayer who was placed in danger but anyone who associated with such [a] crosser,” Thulare said.

“The City of Cape Town is one of the areas in the Republic which is in the eye of a storm of extortion,” Thulare said.

“The failed expectations, high rate of unemployment and lack of opportunities for young people resulted in many young people, especially Blacks, getting poorer, in the midst of the cost of living that is rising. The poverty, for the greedy and moral ‘factory faults’ of society, has created a fertile environment for crime. Greed has for them made poverty and crime blood cousins,” he said.

Solving the murders

Shortly after the brazen shooting, Beja returned to the scene not only as an onlooker, but also to watch who was talking to the police.

The court heard that he even jumped the police tape barricade to monitor what one community member was saying to the police.

“Mr X”, a witness whose identity remains undisclosed for his protection, was reluctant to go to the police on the day of the shooting after recognising Beja and his friends at the scene of the crime.

He went to the police the next day, but recognised some members of the police whom he knew as being close to the Gupta gang. He testified that they asked him why he was at the police station and told Mr X that he “liked” being there. Mr X was hounded even when he was in police protection.

“He had to be re-routed when the destination to a safe place became known to the Gupta gang, of which the accused were members,” Thulare said.

“The Guptas worked with some police officers and had an established network in their rule by the bullet through gangsterism, forceful demand for ‘protection fees’ and extortion.”

Read more in Daily Maverick: Cape Town cops snitched to ‘The Guptas’ gang, endangering mass shooting witness – judge sounds corruption alarm again

It was Thulare’s second judgment in 18 months that raised suspicions of police officers colluding with gangsters in Cape Town.

In October 2022, Daily Maverick reported on a judgment relating to another gang case in which Thulare found evidence suggesting that 28s gangsters may have infiltrated the Western Cape’s police to such an extent that even its senior management could be affected.

The gangsters may also have had access to crime-fighting plans.

Read more in Daily Maverick: 28s gang ‘capture’ top Western Cape cops, prosecutors’ lives at risk – judge sounds corruption alarm

Daily reality

The judge also pointed out that the murders of rival gangs, random civilians and children were a daily reality, especially for black people, in parts of Cape Town.

“This is a pandemic that is alarming and has engulfed the city. The pandemic results in the prevalence of murders, attempted murders and unlawful possession of firearms and ammunition.”

He said Ntera’s sister, also a victim of the shooting, had testified that the trauma she and Ntera’s daughter had suffered was not limited to their physical injuries.

“She had to immediately after the shooting go into induced labour as there was a threat to her unborn child as it was during an advanced stage of her gestation period. Ntera’s six-year-old daughter was shot at and injured, and was also kicked with booted feet by an adult male. After the shooting, the family had to do the ritual cleansing, for which the family had to spend money to ‘wash the blood of the deceased and injured’ from their household,” the judgment said.

As if that were not enough, the family had to move from Khayelitsha and rent property elsewhere because they were too traumatised to stay there.

“She and Ntera’s daughter could no longer live in their home because they had reflections of what happened to them in that house, and relived the trauma daily. This was also the social and economic effect of the crime on them, which was likely to also sustain for some time into the future,” the judgment said.

“The surviving members of the family are being blamed by other families who lost their loved ones, as being the ones responsible for the ambush at the party. The wrong done extends beyond her and Ntera’s daughter and has tainted the whole family name.

“The sins of Ntera and the accused are now visited upon the innocent members of the family.” DM

Categories:

Tags:

DM is much better if you are signed in...

South Africa

Gang feud

Solving the murders

Daily reality