The Pretoria High Court upheld an appeal from the Director of Public Prosecutions over the light punishment for a man who shot and killed his own son.
Coert Kruger, 51, of Vanderbijlpark was released on warning in September last year after being convicted of murdering his oldest son, also Coert Kruger.
At the time, the judge thought it would be enough punishment for him to “look in the mirror at his son’s killer”.
The Supreme Court changed its sentence to eight years in prison, which was suspended for a total of five years.
Kruger shot his son in March last year when he saw him as a thief. Coert jnr. was on the roof of his grandmother’s house, some distance from his parents’ house on the same small holding.
Kruger pleaded guilty to a charge of murder and claimed he responded when the alarm went off at his mother’s house.
The national prosecuting authority argued that the punishment was shockingly light and the regional court did not take into account other similar cases.
The Court of Appeal found that the regional court did not take into account the seriousness of the crime.
“The court did not place sufficient emphasis on the fact that the accused fired a firearm in the direction of the deceased without it being a threat to the accused or armed,” Judge Elmarie van der Schyff found.
The NPA welcomed the ruling.
