Judge orders change to prison sentence

A MAN convicted of attempted murder and sentenced to seven years' imprisonment has been granted leave to appeal against his sentence after taking the case to a full bench of the Grahamstown High Court.

Mzimkhulu Smith Ngqandu, 58, applied for leave to appeal against his conviction and sentence. He was granted leave to appeal only his sentence.

Judge Glenn Goosen last week ordered that the sentence imposed should be set aside and replaced.

The seven years included four years being suspended for five years on condition that Ngqandu was not, during the time of the suspension, found guilty of any offence in which violence or the threat of violence was an element.

Goosen said Ngqandu had applied for leave to appeal based on the submission that the imposition of direct imprisonment of seven years for a first offender who was aged 57 at the time was "shockingly inappropriate". - Lee-Anne Butler