Lucky Dube (1964-2007) was shot dead in South Africa on Thursday, October 18, 2007. The reggae icon was hailed and respected all over Africa and the world.
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JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA Apr 01 2009 13:38
The three men who killed reggae icon Lucky Dube should be removed from society and not be considered for parole before serving at least 25 years of their sentence, the prosecution told the High Court in Johannesburg on Wednesday.
"They didn't show any remorse ... and they are surely not candidates for rehabilitation. This court should impose one sentence only and that sentence is life imprisonment," state advocate Lethabo Mashiane said.
He was arguing ahead of the sentencing of the trio. On Tuesday Sifiso Mhlanga, Julius Gxowa and Mbuti Mabe were found guilty of killing Dube in October 2007 during a botched hijacking. They were also found guilty of hijacking a Mercedes Benz two days after Dube was killed.
Lawyers representing the three men said on Wednesday that while there were no substantial or compelling circumstances for the court to impose a lesser sentence, Judge Seun Moshidi should consider that they had minor children.
Mashiane disputed this, saying the trio had not considered their children when committing the crime.
"They had these children before they decided to commit the crime, so they can't now say 'please have mercy on us because we have children'," Mashiane said.
The court should also consider that Dube's killers robbed 14 of his employees of an income and his seven children of a father.
Thuthukani Cele, one of Dube's nine band members, told the court that his staff included a driver and office workers. Cele said Dube was a humanitarian who gave poor women food and matriculants money to further their studies.
Judge Moshidi stood the matter down for Thursday to consider all the facts.
"The court isn't going to rush, so the court will give sentence tomorrow at 10am," Moshidi said. -- Sapa
Source: Mail & Guardian Online
Web Address: http://www.mg.co.za/article/2009-04-01-state-dube-killers-should-get-life-sentences
Lucky Dube's alleged killers try to escape from police custody
JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA Mar 31 2009 12:09
Judgement in the trial of Lucky Dube's alleged killers was delayed on Tuesday to ascertain if two of the accused, injured while trying to escape from police custody, were fit to proceed.
The judgement in the High Court in Johannesburg started at 11.30am instead of the scheduled 10am.
Lawyers representing Sifiso Mhlanga and Mbuti Mabe told the court the two men were rushed to hospital following an attempted escape on Tuesday morning.
"Accused one [Mhlanga] attempted to escape and he got injured in the process and was taken to hospital," said advocate Vuyo Jack.
Mpho Milubi, who is representing Mabe, said the same regarding his client.
The two men, whose judgement was due to be finalised by Tuesday afternoon, allegedly assaulted a police officer at about 8am.
However, other officers managed to apprehend them before they could escape and they were rearrested and taken to hospital as they were injured in the ensuing scuffle.
The nature of their injuries was not yet known.
The police officer assaulted with a brick was receiving treatment in hospital.
Before standing down the trial for 11.30am, Judge Seun Moshidi requested that security be beefed up until the trial was finalised.
"I suggest, in view of this development, that security should be beefed up. People going into this court should be safe and court orderlies must do their work ... They have been too relaxed," Moshidi said.
The third accused, Julius Gxowa, cut a lone figure in court on Tuesday morning.
Captain John Maluleke said a truck transporting prisoners from the prison to the courts arrived at about 7.30am at the high court building.
It drove into the courtyard and down to the basement where it parked next to the holding cells to offload 16 prisoners.
The roller gate was closed to seal off the basement and nine policemen were sent to carry out the prisoner transfer from the truck to the cells.
As per procedure, prisoners came out two-by-two to be handcuffed and to have their feet chained together.
Maluleke said the first two pairs of prisoners came out of the truck and were cuffed and chained.
The third pair included one of the men accused of murdering Dube.
As the two men were stepping down from the truck, both pushed hard at one of the vehicle's doors -- causing it to swing into a police officer and knock him to the ground.
A second officer, standing with the chains and cuffs in hand, was then struck by a brick in the face, allegedly wielded by one of the men accused of murdering Dube.
A third officer pulled out a firearm and fired off two warning shots into the air before demanding that all prisoners lie on the ground.
Police then handcuffed and chained the prisoners where they lay on the ground.
Four police officers were injured during the incident.
No prisoners managed to escape and the roller door was closed throughout the incident. All prisoners were placed in the holding cells.
A case of attempted escape and assault on an officer would be investigated, said Maluleke. -- Sapa
Source: Mail & Guardian Online
Web Address: http://www.mg.co.za/article/2009-03-31-lucky-dubes-alleged-killers-try-to-escape
Dube accused found guilty
JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA Mar 31 2009 16:57
Slain reggae musician Lucky Dube's family clapped in excitement as the three men accused of his murder were found guilty in the High Court in Johannesburg on Tuesday.
Judge Seun Moshidi found Sifiso Mhlanga, Mbuti Mabe and Julius Gxowa guilty of shooting and killing Dube during a botched hijacking in Rosettenville on October 18 2007.
Mabe was also found guilty on charges related to the aggravated robbery of a VW Polo on October 13 2007. His two co-accused were acquitted on this charge.
The three men were also found guilty on charges related to the hijacking of a Mercedes Benz in Jules Street, Johannesburg, two days after Dube's murder.
Responding to Moshidi's verdict, Dube's son Thokozani said the family was happy that his father's killers had been brought to book.
"What happened to uBaba [Dube] was really traumatic to all of us, but we are happy that his killers have been found guilty. We know they are being brought to book and we can now have closure," Dube junior said.
He, along with his sister Nonkululeko, were present when their father was killed.
He hoped his father's killers would get a "proper sentence".
Dube's wife was too emotional to talk to journalists.
Before the case was adjourned for arguments in mitigation of sentence, state prosecutor advocate Lethabo Mashiane asked that two of the accused be held at the Johannesburg Central Police Station's high risk security detention centre, rather than at Johannesburg Prison where they had been kept thus far.
The request came after two of the accused tried to escape from police custody on Tuesday morning. Judgement was delayed to ascertain if the two were fit to proceed.
The judgement started at 11.30am instead of the scheduled 10am.
Lawyers representing Sifiso Mhlanga and Mbuti Mabe told the court earlier that the two men were rushed to hospital following an attempted escape on Tuesday morning.
"Accused one [Mhlanga] attempted to escape and he got injured in the process and was taken to hospital," said advocate Vuyo Jack.
Mpho Milubi, who is representing Mabe, said the same regarding his client.
The two men allegedly assaulted a police officer at about 8am.
However, other officers managed to apprehend them before they could escape and they were rearrested and taken to hospital as they were injured in the ensuing scuffle.
Captain John Maluleke said a truck transporting prisoners from the prison to the courts arrived at about 7.30am at the high court building.
It drove into the courtyard and down to the basement where it parked next to the holding cells to offload 16 prisoners.
The roller gate was closed to seal off the basement and nine policemen were sent to carry out the prisoner transfer from the truck to the cells.
As per procedure, prisoners came out two-by-two to be handcuffed and to have their feet chained together.
Maluleke said the first two pairs of prisoners came out of the truck and were cuffed and chained.
The third pair included one of the men accused of murdering Dube.
As the two men were stepping down from the truck, both pushed hard at one of the vehicle's doors -- causing it to swing into a police officer and knock him to the ground.
A second officer, standing with the chains and cuffs in hand, was then struck by a brick in the face, allegedly wielded by one of the men accused of murdering Dube.
A third officer pulled out a firearm and fired off two warning shots into the air before demanding that all prisoners lie on the ground.
Police then handcuffed and chained the prisoners where they lay on the ground.
Four police officers were injured during the incident.
No prisoners managed to escape and the roller door was closed throughout the incident. All prisoners were placed in the holding cells.
A case of attempted escape and assault on an officer would be investigated, said Maluleke. -- Sapa
Source: Mail & Guardian Online
Web Address: http://www.mg.co.za/article/2009-03-31-lucky-dube-accused-found-guilty
April 1, 2009
3 Found Guilty in 2007 Killing of Reggae Star in South Africa
By BARRY BEARAK
JOHANNESBURG — Three men accused of murdering the South African reggae star Lucky Dube were found guilty here on Tuesday, just hours after two of them tried to bolt from custody on the way back to their trial.
Mr. Dube (pronounced doo-bay) was an internationally famous musician, and his murder during a botched carjacking in October 2007 once again brought the appalling rate of violent crime in South Africa to the world’s attention.
A recording artist with a strong social conscience, Mr. Dube, 43, had worked with Peter Gabriel, Sinead O’Connor and other Western artists. He often sang about the evils of crime, of houses broken into and bullets fired, wanting criminals to see their misdeeds through the eyes of their victims. He was killed while dropping off his two teenage children at his brother’s house in Rosettenville, near downtown Johannesburg.
Mr. Dube left behind a wife and seven children. After Tuesday’s verdict was read, his wife was too emotional to talk with reporters, but his son Thokozani, who had witnessed the crime, said, “We can now have closure.”
More than a dozen armed officers oversaw the proceedings after two of the defendants earlier tried to escape while guards transferred them from a truck to the courtroom basement. One prisoner hit a policeman in the face with a brick, according to a police captain quoted in a local news account of the episode. Warning shots were then fired, and the defendants were subdued in a scuffle. They arrived in court with their heads bandaged.
The three convicted men, S’fiso Mhlanga, Mbuti Mabe and Julius Gxowa, will be sentenced after a hearing where mitigating evidence can be presented. The death penalty has been banned in South Africa, though the Dube case has been cited by those who want its return.
The nation’s homicide rate, while declining, is among the worst. In 2006, it was about eight times more than the United States’ and 20 times higher than Western Europe’s, according to Antony Altbeker, a criminologist. Electrified barbed wire surrounds many of the finest homes in Johannesburg. South Africa exceeds international norms in its number of police officers, and by some estimates there are more than four times as many private security guards as police officers, with most companies promising their clients “armed response.”
Criminologists have long puzzled over not only the nation’s high crime rate but also the unusual amount of homicide and torture that accompanies burglaries and carjackings.
Mr. Dube had been driving a late-model Chrysler luxury sedan. According to the trial testimony of Mpho Maruping, who knew the accused men, they had been looking for just such an automobile the day of the crime.
The three men did not realize that they had killed someone both famous and widely beloved until they read the newspapers the next day. They had thought their victim “was a Nigerian,” Ms. Maruping said.
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