Rapper, Pitch Black Afro, has been sentenced to 10 years imprisonment- half of which has been suspended for five years.
The artist, whose real name is Thulani Ngcobo, was found guilty on a charge of culpable homicide yesterday by Judge Du Plessis yesterday at the South Gauteng High court. He was initially charged with premeditated murder and defeating the needs of justice by the police.
The sentence means that the rapper will spend less than threes years in prison, as he had already spent one year and five months in custody while awaiting trial.
Delivering his judgement on Friday after hearing arguments in mitigation and aggravation of sentence from both legal representatives, Du Plessis said the rapper was not remorseful for his negligence though he had not intentionally killed his fiancé Catherine Modisane.
Du Plessis said he had considered the fact that Pitch Black Afro, who still had a good relationship with his fiancé’s family, had contributed money towards the funeral of his deceased partner.
The state prosecutor Patience Moleko argued that the rapper be given five years direct imprisonment, saying that the court could not ignore the fact that there was a loss of human life.
The prosecutor also asked the court to declare the rapper unfit to possess a firearm licence.
Pitch Black Afro’s lawyer Riaan Greyling, conceded that his client might have negligently caused his fiancee’s death , but said the deceased was the one who initiated the argument by accusing the rapper of cheating on her with numerous women.
He said the deceased slapped the rapper, provoking his client to react violently against her.
Considering both representations, the judge said there was no evidence that the accused had an abusive relationship with the deceased and that the incident which led to the death of his fiancee was a once-off thing.
“Although he apologized to the family, but he still denies that he knows what happened on the day. It didn’t assist the accused to speak for himself, because I still don’t see remorse on his side. It doesn’t help him,” said the judge.
He said Pitch Black Afro could not use the fact that he was intoxicated as an excuse for his actions.
