On 5 January 2006 in Arcadia, Pretoria, the appellant, Mr Zuluboy Zulu, and a confederate hijacked a motor vehicle belonging to Mr Ngungweni while it was parked in the street. Armed with firearms, they forced Mr Ngungweni and his companion, Ms Mtombeni, out of the vehicle and also stole Ms Mtombeni’s handbag. The vehicle was fitted with a tracking device and the perpetrators were arrested approximately an hour later in Yeoville, Johannesburg, with both the vehicle and the handbag recovered. Mr Zulu was charged with two counts of robbery (relating to the motor vehicle and the handbag) and additional firearms-related offences. He was convicted in the Regional Court, Pretoria, and sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment on each robbery count under the minimum sentencing legislation, with the sentences ordered to run consecutively, resulting in an effective sentence of 30 years’ imprisonment.
The appeal was upheld. The order of the Gauteng Division of the High Court dismissing the petition for leave to appeal was set aside and replaced with an order granting the appellant leave to appeal against sentence to the Full Court of the Gauteng Division, Pretoria.
The case is significant for reaffirming sentencing principles in South African criminal law, particularly that multiple convictions arising from a single criminal enterprise should not automatically result in cumulative sentences leading to disproportionate punishment. It underscores the duty of sentencing courts to consider concurrency and the totality of punishment, as well as to give proper weight to time spent in custody awaiting trial. The judgment also illustrates the SCA’s willingness to intervene where lower courts improperly refuse leave to appeal.