The appellant, a serving police constable, participated in a well‑planned cash‑in‑transit robbery at the Secunda Business Centre on 2 December 1997 together with a heavily armed group. Security officers were robbed of cash and a firearm, and during a subsequent police chase the robbers fired at pursuing police and members of the public, resulting in gunshot injuries. The appellant was initially convicted in the regional court on multiple counts including robbery with aggravating circumstances, robbery of a motor vehicle, ten counts of attempted murder, attempted robbery, and unlawful possession of firearms and ammunition, and sentenced to an effective 20 years’ imprisonment. At the time of sentencing, he was already serving a separate sentence of 25 years’ imprisonment for an earlier robbery committed in November 1998. On appeal, several convictions were set aside by the High Court, reducing the effective sentence in the present matter to 14 years’ imprisonment. However, this sentence was ordered to run consecutively to the existing 25‑year sentence, resulting in a cumulative effective sentence of 39 years’ imprisonment.
The appeal against sentence was upheld in part. The sentence of ten years’ imprisonment for attempted murder was reduced to seven years, and the seven‑year sentence for robbery with aggravating circumstances was ordered to run concurrently with the seven‑year sentence for the nine attempted murder convictions. The antedating order made by the High Court under s 282 of the Criminal Procedure Act was set aside. The appellant is to serve an effective additional seven years’ imprisonment after completion of the existing 25‑year sentence.
The case reaffirms the principle that courts must consider the cumulative effect of multiple sentences, particularly where an accused is already serving a lengthy term of imprisonment. It underscores the SCA’s consistent warning against shockingly long sentences imposed for public appeasement and clarifies the appropriate use of concurrency to achieve proportionality in sentencing.