A heartfelt text message in which a disgraced bookkeeper convicted of stealing more than R1.2m from the Aurora Special Care Centre explained how he had felt useless and unworthy his whole life — perhaps the motivation behind the thefts — did little to sway the state from asking for a lengthy jail term.

And while a probation officer conceded that Johannes Gieselbach had appeared remorseful — he had spent a lot of time in her presence crying — she agreed that the only suitable sentence was one of direct imprisonment...