Killer dad gets life

Thirty-two years ago, Rashaad Kruger committed his first crime.

Since then, he has been convicted of some 15 crimes - as well as the murder of his daughter.

But on Monday, as an aging Kruger sat in the dock, Acting Judge Nonkosi Saba sentenced him to a life behind bars.

“It is interesting to know that (Kruger) committed his first crime when he was 18 in 1978,” said Judge Saba in the Western Cape High Court while Kruger sat in the dock, giving nothing away.

“He is now 50 so he is not the type of person who can easily change his ways no matter what type of sentence he was given.”

Kruger, who refused to stand when his sentence was read out, would only nod his head as his sentence was translated into Afrikaans.

Kruger, 50, was previously convicted of the murder of his young daughter, Moneba.

He slit her throat fearing she would testify against him in a case where he was accused of attempting to rape her friend.

Judge Saba said Kruger’s 15 previous convictions made it clear that he “never learned anything from committing the crimes”.

“Kruger used dangerous weapons and executed a death sentence on his own daughter. He has shown no remorse for that.

“His previous convictions show that he has no regard for the life of people, especially women,” she said.

Judge Saba said that four of Kruger’s previous convictions had been for rape, while one was for the indecent assault on a girl under the age of 16.

She said he had killed the 13-year-old Moneba in a “brutal and degrading manner”.

“He was given the opportunity to apologise to his wife in court but he never apologised. He cried in court but he knew his hands were full of his daughter’s blood,” said Judge Saba, adding that Kruger was supposed to be the person who protected his daughter from the “evils of this world”.

“But he was responsible for extinguishing her life. She suffered a long, painful and undignified death,” she said, referring to the way Kruger had covered Moneba’s mouth as he slit her throat, preventing her from screaming for help.

Judge Saba went on to say that Moneba was “slaughtered like an animal”.

She said that Moneba’s mother and Kruger’s estranged wife, Nadia Kruger, who found Moneba’s body, had told the court that she would forgive him if he apologised - but he never did.

She said while Kruger’s counsel had earlier argued several factors as mitigating circumstances such as his deteriorating health and his age - she could find no substantial reason to depart from the prescribed minimum sentence of life imprisonment.

Kruger was also sentenced on several other counts, including incitement to commit a sexual offence. His sentences are to run concurrently.

“Both (Moneba and her friend) viewed him as a father,” said Judge Saba.

After the sentence, Nadia Kruger said she was satisfied that Kruger had been given a life sentence. She wanted him to “rot in jail”. - Cape Times

aeysha.kassiem@inl.co.za