He got behind the wheel drunk, sped 150km/h, crashed into a car, killing a 73-year-old woman. His fine: R30 000.
|||Cape Town - The man who negligently caused the death of 73-year-old Joan Fulford during a horror crash on Hospital Bend nearly three years ago has been sentenced to house arrest and fined R30 000 for drunk driving.
Bhekilanga Nkalitshana, 39, a plant maintenance engineer at PetroSA in Mossel Bay, was sentenced in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court on Thursday.
In delivering sentence, Magistrate Aziz Hamied said he considered a term of imprisonment as a possible sentence, but instead found that a wholly suspended sentence and correctional supervision was appropriate for the September 16, 2010 crash.
Nkalitshana, who was travelling at a speed of about 150km/hr, had been drinking before his 3-series BMW collided with Fulford’s vehicle.
Fulford, from Edinburgh in the UK, was in her country of birth to attend her brother’s funeral.
On the day of the crash, Fulford and two friends, Maureen Archer and Peggy Delport were on their way to the theatre in the CBD when the collision occurred.
The impact was so powerful that the vehicle was flung across two lanes into a barrier and caught alight.
Footage of the collision has been used by the Western Cape government in road safety campaigns.
Hamied said on Thursday that culpable homicide was “always a very serious crime”, and sentenced Nkalitshana to two years direct imprisonment, wholly suspended for five years, on condition he was not convicted of culpable homicide again between now and 2018.
A three-year correctional supervision sentence was imposed.
This means Nkalitshana will be under house arrest at his Mossel Bay home for the next three years, may not leave his house unless he goes to work or church, and has to do 200 hours of community service.
Nkalitshana was ordered to complete treatment and development programmes, subject himself to monitoring at work and home, visits from a correctional officer, and refrain from using alcohol or drugs.
For driving under the influence, Hamied fined Nkalitshana R60 000, or 36 months in jail, half of which was suspended for five years.
His driver’s licence was also suspended for one year. The law allows for suspension of up to five years.
Hamied said although the punishment should fit the offender and the crime, the objectives of sentencing was deterrence, prevention, reformation and retribution.
“You robbed them of a matriarch in their house, a grandmother and a vibrant lady in their lives. Their loss can never be replaced,” he said.
Hamied said removing Nkalitshana from society would have a “dreadful effect” on his pregnant wife and four children, who were dependent on him financially.
After court Delport - who had been driving the vehicle that day - said Nkalitshana committed “an act of great violence” as more people could have been killed.
She said the sentence gave her a sense of closure but the most disturbing aspect was that Nkalitshana would be driving again within a year.
Delport said she was grateful to the brave people who helped her and her friends that day.
jade.otto@inl.co.za
Cape Argus