It was tears of grief and dismay at what they saw as a judicial system let-down for the family of murdered local businessman Bhaven Moodley, after the man found guilty of killing him was sentenced to an effective 15 years on Friday.
Speaking to Weekend Post after Riyaad Salegie was handed his sentence in the Port Elizabeth High Court, Moodley’s cousin, Vedra Abrahams, said her family was very angry at the outcome.
“The grief is eating us up. As a family we are broken up. “I don’t feel it is justice.
“I feel he should have gotten life,” said Abrahams, who travelled from New Zealand to attend the court case.
Abrahams said the death of her aunt, Moodley’s mother Shirley, who was also attacked during the robbery, had affected the family so severely that even her own mother, Val Brown, 78, had become bedridden from grief.
Shirley died on April 8 in 2019, with the family believing her death was attributed to the after-effects from being assaulted and losing her son.
On Friday, acting judge Lisa Ntsepe sentenced Salegie, 27, to seven years for two counts of robbery with aggravating circumstances, three years for house robbery, three years for assault and 15 years for murder.
Ntsepe ordered that all the sentences run concurrently.
In his plea explanation, Salegie claimed he and an alleged accomplice, who is not being named as he has not been officially charged, planned to rob Moodley in order to get money to buy drugs.
After sentencing, Salegie’s attorney brought an application for leave to appeal the conviction of murder, claiming it was not foreseeable by Salegie that Moodley would have been murdered, placing blame on his alleged accomplice.
Ntsepe dismissed the application after hearing arguments by the state, saying there was “no reasonable possibility of success for an appeal”.