The Durban High Court has sentenced Philakahle Hloniphani Dladla, 28, to life imprisonment and 15 years in jail for killing KwaDukuza senior superintendent, Mariemuthoo Arumugam, and robbing a taxi full of passengers at gunpoint on November 4, 2024. 

In sentencing Dladla on Thursday morning, Acting Judge Vikela Ntlokwana stated that he found no exceptional circumstances that would allow for a deviation from the prescribed minimum sentences.

On November 4, 2024, Dladla boarded a taxi at the KwaDukuza taxi rank. He ordered the driver, Bheki Xulu, to take the Groutville off-ramp and produced a firearm and robbed those inside. He robbed Xulu of R1,100. 

Arumugam, driving a Toyota Fortuner, arrived at the scene to investigate the stationary vehicle. When he inquired, Dladla immediately turned his firearm on the senior superintendent and shot him six times at close range. 

Dladla then drove the taxi to a nearby township, where he continued to rob the passengers, demanding their cellphones. After the robbery, he locked the victims inside the taxi and fled the scene.

In delivering the judgment on the sentence, Judge Ntlokwana described Arumugam’s death as a heinous crime with a high degree of violence, with no consideration of human life.

He emphasised that Dladla had no justifiable reason to shoot the police officer. The judge said Dladla could have run away, as Arumugam was unaware of the situation inside the taxi, but instead he chose to shoot him.

“That act of conduct shows the accused carried a gun to rob and was prepared to eliminate anyone standing in the way of his criminal act. The court accepts that the action of killing a police officer was a planned criminal act,” he said. 

He said the victim impact statements of Xulu, Arumugam’s son Kyel, and that of a taxi passenger, Thembisile Zikhali, showed the serious pain that Dladla caused. 

“One can only imagine the fear of those who were robbed after the shooting, having seen how dangerous Dladla is after having killed a police officer.”

The acting judge said the manner in which the robbery and murder were committed indicated that there are very rare circumstances under which Dladla can be rehabilitated. Therefore, he is not a candidate for rehabilitation. 

Judge Ntlokwana said the police are supposed to protect the community, and any act that prohibits that, resulting in their killing, is an attack on society.

He added that the minimum sentence for the murder of a law enforcement officer was life imprisonment. 

The 11 months Dladla spent in jail were deemed insufficient to warrant a deviation from the minimum sentence.

In addition to life imprisonment for murder, Dladla received 15 years’ imprisonment for the two counts of robbery with aggravating circumstances. Five years each for possession of an unlicensed firearm and ammunition. He was declared unfit to possess a firearm.

Outside the court, Arumugam’s elder brother, Buffy, expressed the family’s satisfaction with the sentence.

“This is a strong warning to criminals out there that killing an officer is an attack on the state,” he said.

nomonde.zondi@inl.co.za

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