Carlo du Plessis, has committed to paying compensation to the family of his “favourite, star employee”, who died not long after being assaulted by Du Plessis.
|||Kimberley - Well-known local businessman and miner, Carlo du Plessis, has committed to paying compensation to the family of his “favourite, star employee”, who died not long after being assaulted by Du Plessis with a sjambok.
Du Plessis was this week acquitted of the murder of Alfred Phakedi, one of his farmworkers who died only hours after Du Plessis assaulted him and three other workers with a sjambok on the farm Makoenskloof, near Douglas, in August 2014, and was instead convicted on one charge of assault with the intent to do grievous bodily harm (GBH), one charge of attempted assault and two charges of common assault.
During pre-sentencing arguments presented on Wednesday by the State and Du Plessis’ legal representative, Advocate Barry Roux SC, in the Northern Cape High Court, it transpired that “restorative justice” would be the likely approach, as opposed to direct imprisonment, when Judge Frans Kgomo hands down his sentence on Thursday.
During arguments, Roux indicated that Du Plessis wanted to pay Phakedi’s grandmother an amount of R57 000 in back pay, as well as R3 000 a month (with a yearly seven percent increase) for the rest of her life, as compensation.
“Du Plessis has stated that Alfred (Phakedi) was his ‘favourite’ employee and that they had a very good relationship. He was completely devastated by his death. He went for anger management classes to prevent something like this ever happening again. While he was not responsible for the death, morally he feels guilty and wants to help (the family),” Roux said.
He added that the case was “screaming for a suspended sentence” to be imposed.
The State, in turn, said that “restorative justice” (compensation) would be applicable and fair and asked for Du Plessis to be sentenced to a two-year suspended sentence on the assault GBH charge, on condition that the once-off payment of R57 000 and the R3 000-per-month payments are made to Phakedi’s grandmother and that Du Plessis not again be convicted of a violent crime.
Kgomo is set to sentence Du Plessis on Thursday.
DFA