A convicted killer was sentenced to life in prison by the High Court in Knysna, Western Cape, for the murder of a well-known businessman.
Waydon Bezuidenhout, 34, was found guilty of abduction, opposing or obstructing the administration of justice, and murdering Gladman Mawande Kondlo, the proprietor of Wandu Tours and Stay, in January 2022.
The conviction comes after State Prosecutor Advocate Lenro Badenhorst presented a compelling case before multiple witnesses, including police, crime scene experts, GPS and cell phone mapping experts, and family members of the dead.
Bezuidenhout was also the owner of Cassandra Funerals.
The evidence presented in court established that the dead and the Bezuidenhout had been friends for more than two years and lived on the same street. Bezuidenhout had slept in the deceased’s bed and breakfast multiple times, despite the fact that his home was close to the facility.
The deceased was last seen with Bezuidenhout and three other people, including a woman, entering a dark vehicle on the evening of January 15, 2022. His body was found in the bushes on the evening of January 17, 2022.
His legs and hands were bound, and he wore a cloth stuffed in his mouth and a black bag over his head.
On August 25, 2022, Bezuidenhout was taken into custody. He chose not to reveal the foundation of his defense and entered not guilty pleas to all of the accusations made against him.
Blood was discovered in the boot of an SUV that he had rented in the afternoon of January 14, 2022, to take mourners to a funeral that Cassandra Funerals held early on January 15, 2022, in The Crags, close to Plettenberg Bay. This discovery led to his arrest.
Using a car tracker and cell phone mapping, Bezuidenhout’s phone and the car were also located. They disclosed that Bezuidenhout made multiple visits to the crime scene, where the corpse of the deceased was subsequently discovered.
Bezuidenhout requested an order to testify in camera after the State concluded its case because he wanted to reveal information and take the court under his wing.
He declared that if the proof he was to provide was presented in public, he would fear for his life and the lives of his family. The individuals he intended to accuse were reportedly violent, the court was informed.
Bezuidenhout testified in court that he asked the neighborhood drug lords for money so he could purchase a hearse for his company. It was decided when he met with Alastair Galant, Yonele Best, Vusumzi Gungu, and Khaya Adonis that he would join their drug-distribution network. Bezhuidenhout claimed that he was informed there was no way out once inside.
He asserted that Gunga was the network’s leader and that, during its peak, it had connections with the courts, jails, and police.
Bezuidenhout claimed that three or four weeks prior to the murder, he, Galant, Gungu, and Adonis met at Galant’s apartment where he was informed of the intentions to kill the deceased and that he was picked for the task because of his close relationship with the deceased.
Gungu instructed him to select his favorite weapon after pulling out two. He claimed that Gungu informed him that he was previously compensated for killing the victim. He admitted to them that he didn’t think he could pull it off, but that if he was inebriated, he might be.
Bezuidenhout testified in court that he accepted the job because he thought he could not reason with the organization, and that he was informed that the assassination had to happen before the weekend of January 14, 2022.
He said that after the death, Gungu told him that he did not have the guts to murder the deceased and that a hitman from Gqeberha in the Eastern Cape had been recruited to carry out the hit.
Additionally, he testified in court that he discovered the group—which included the Gqeberha woman—at the deceased’s bed and breakfast the night before the murder. The deceased, according to Bezuidenhout, begged him, but the others led him into a car.
He was requested to open his rental SUV’s boot. At the crime scene, they proceeded by car. Bezuidenhout claimed he received threats telling him to disappear and keep the murder a secret.
The accused admitted to being a part of the murder in his testimony, but he did not give any explanation for why the victim was killed other than Gungu’s desire for the deceased’s bed and breakfast enterprise.
Bezuidenhout received sentences of five years in direct jail for kidnapping, life in prison for murder, and a year and a half in direct prison for undermining or impeding the course of justice. The court mandated that the life term for kidnapping and for undermining or preventing the administration of justice run concurrently with one other.
