Donald Khobane – who stole R3m from ATMs which were assigned to him, claiming he was under the influence of a ‘spiritual healer’ – has been granted leave to appeal against his 15-year jail sentence for theft, says a TimesLIVE report. Khobane had been employed by Nedbank as an ATM consultant and his job was to balance and replenish the cash at nine ATMs assigned to him in Johannesburg.

The charge sheet did not indicate that Khobane would be sentenced in terms of the ‘minimum sentence legislation’ to 15 years for his crime. Khobane was sentenced by the Alexandra Regional Court. He applied for leave to appeal‚ which the magistrate dismissed. Khobane then petitioned the Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg) for leave to appeal against both conviction and sentence. The court refused the petition.

He then petitioned the SCA‚ which granted Khobane leave to appeal‚ to it‚ against the refusal of his petition. In its judgment, the SCA said the entire question of the minimum sentence was dealt with in a hasty and superficial way, and the question of Khobane having been under the sinister influence of a 'confidence trickster' was not explored.

'The facts of the case are so bizarre that they cry out for a full investigation before the imposition of sentence. There was no probation officer’s report for the magistrate to consider‚’ Judge of Appeal Nigel Willis said. He added the SCA had been careful not to stipulate that the failure to warn an accused person who faced a prescribed minimum sentence would necessarily result in an unfair trial.

Full TimesLIVE report

Khobane v S