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S v Basa (488/85/av) [1986] ZASCA 52 (16 May 1985)

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488/85/AV

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF SOUTH AFRICA

APPELLATE DIVISION

In the matter between:

JOSEPH JUNIOR BASA Appellant

AND

THE STATE Respondent

CORAM: CORBETT, HOEXTER, JJA et NICHOLAS, AJA

HEARD: 9 May 1986

DELIVERED: 16 May 1986

JUDGMENT

NICHOLAS, AJA

JOSEPH BASA was convicted of murder. The trial

Court (NIENABER J and two assessors) found that there were

no......

2
no extenuating circumstances and BASA was sentenced to death.

Leave was granted to appeal to this Court against the sen-

tence "on the grounds that the Court erred in finding that

there were no extenuating circumstances.

The facts may be briefly stated
In August 1984 BASA consulted a witch-doctor in

Pietermaritzburg. He told him that he had recently es-

caped from the Volksrust Prison. (It appeared from the

form SAP 69 which was put in after his conviction that he

had been sentenced on 21 March 1984 to 6 years' imprison-

ment.) He desired that the witch-doctor make him a

medicine so that he would not be recognized by the police

He was told that for this purpose the heart, liver and

part......

3

part of the intestines of a white person were required.

Thereafter he made the acquaintance of GLEN ERNEST LIGHTFOOT,

who lived alone at 79 Havelock Road, Pietermaritzburg.

On 20 August 1934 BASA and LIGHTFOOT were sitting in the

kitchen of LIGHTFOOT's house, reading and drinking sorghum

beer. While LIGHTFOOT was engrossed in the book he was

reading, and was under the influence of the beer he had

drunk, BASA struck him a blow on the head, rendering him

unconscious. He then strangled him. When LIGHTFOOT

was dead, BASA opened him up and removed from his body the

genitalia, the heart, the liver and some flesh from the

abdomen. He put the parts in a plastic bag and gave them

to the witch-doctor. On 8 October 1984 he was arrested

and.......

4
and immediately made a full confession.
In giving judgment on extenuating circumstances, NIENABER J said that the Court found:

"(1) that the Accused approached the witch doctor for his own selfish purpose in order to obtain the means to escape detection by the police;

(2) that the Accused killed the deceased
because he was instructed by the witch
doctor to produce the heart and other

parts of the body of a white person;

(3) that he could only do so by murdering

someone;

(4) that he would not have killed the deceased if the witch doctor had not instructed him to do so;

(5) that he accordingly acted under the influence of the witch doctor in killing the deceased;

(6) that he allowed himself to be influenced because of his primitive belief in the power of witch craft."

The......

5
The Court considered that these factors undoubted-

ly could and in fact did influence BASA's state of mind

in the sense that he would not otherwise have killed LIGHT-

FOOT. But this influence was not of such a nature as to

reduce his moral blameworthiness. The motivating force

was not belief in witchcraft but his own self-interest.

He was seeking to use powers of evil to achieve his unlaw-

ful aim of trying to escape the consequences of his own

criminal activities. He showed an utter disregard for

the loss of an innocent human life in the attainment of a

selfish purpose.

In his argument on appeal counsel for BASA did

not suggest, that in making its finding the trial. Court

misdirected.....
6
misdirected itself or committed any irregularity. Nor

did he suggest that the trial Court's conclusion was such

that, on the evidence, it could not reasonably have been

reached. There is therefore no basis on which this Court

could interfere with the trial Court's finding that there

were no extenuating circumstances

The appeal is dismissed
H C NICHOLAS, AJA
CORBETT, JA HOEXTER, JA

Concur