Ayanda Dayi was convicted on an array of charges, including four murders.
Image: Supplied
Serial offender Ayanda Dayi has been sentenced to four life terms for killing four men during a spree of violent and gruesome crimes.
One of Dayi’s crimes that sent shockwaves through the country was when video footage emerged of three men in a Sasko bread truck who were shot at point-blank range while delivering bread at a spaza shop in Symphony Way in Delft on May 16, 2024.
The 42-year-old was sentenced at the Wynberg Regional Court on Tuesday following the hard work and commitment of investigating officers Detective Lieutenant Colonel Adrian Pretorius and Detective Warrant Officer Bradley Davids, said police spokesperson FC. van Wyk.
Dayi was sentenced to four life imprisonment terms, 15 years' imprisonment for robbery with aggravating circumstances, another three 15 years imprisonment for illegal possession of firearms and four years for the illegal possession of ammunition. For attempted murder, he was sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment.
Dayi was also declared unfit to possess a firearm.
Before the bread truck incident, in the same year, Dayi had committed a double murder after he shot and killed two men and hijacked their car in Dunoon.
He was previously convicted of rape and sentenced to 18 years' imprisonment in August 23, 2002 and was on a parole when he committed the four murders.
Provincial Police Commissioner, Lieutenant General (Adv) Thembisile Patekile commended the work of the investigating and prosecution teams for ensuring that justice is served.
The State had previously urged the court to sentence Dayi to five life sentences and seventy-five years of direct imprisonment when it hands down sentencing.
Senior State Prosecutor Advocate Esna Erasmus had argued that there was nothing before the court, whether individually or cumulatively, that diminished the moral blameworthiness of Dayi or rendered the prescribed sentences disproportionate.
“On the contrary, the aggravating features are overwhelming. The interests of society, the gravity of the offences, and the protection of the public demand that the prescribed minimum sentences be imposed,” National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson Eric Ntabazalila had said.
Members of the Western Cape Provincial Detectives’ Serious and Violent Crimes Unit investigation team, Lieutenant Colonel Adrian Pretorius and Warrant Officer Bradley Davids, outside Wynberg police station.
Image: SAPS
Cape Times