IN THE HIGH COURT OF SOUTH AFRICA
(WESTERN CAPE HIGH COURT, CAPE TOWN)

In the matter between:

and

JUDGMENT

MEER, J:

The circumstances under which the robbery was committed, are typical of so many house burglaries, of what can almost be regarded as a pandemic in our country The Complainant, a young girl, opens the front door in response to the doorbell, was held up with a firearm, locked in the toilet, Appellant keeping guard outside, whilst he and his Co-Accused ransacked the house of mostly electrical equipment to the value of just under R20 000-00. Once the burglars had left, the Complainant escaped through the toilet window She has understandably been traumatised by the event. The stolen goods, it appears, were later recovered.

Moreover, as controversial a proposition as this is likely to be, this was not the worst type of robbery, given that the Complainant, as aforementioned, was not seriously physically injured. These considerations, together with the fact that Appellant is a young man, with young dependants, cumulatively, in my view, constitute substantial and compelling circumstances, which militate against the minimum sentence in the interests of Appellant's young family to whom he must fulfil his commitments.