The Pretoria regional court on Thursday sentenced Andrew Kagiso Malele to eight years in prison for culpable homicide for causing the deaths of a young couple five years ago.

Malele was also sentenced to three years’ imprisonment for drunk driving. The sentences are to run concurrently. The court also cancelled his driver’s licence.

The prosecution of Malele was instituted in April last year after the involvement of AfriForum’s private prosecution unit. The unit intervened because the docket had, according to the state, gone missing.

Malele pleaded guilty in the Pretoria regional court in May.

The unit welcomed the sentence on Thursday, saying it sent a strong message to would-be drunk drivers and that grossly negligent behaviour on the country’s roads would not be tolerated.

On December 23 2017, Malele crashed his car into the vehicle Ruan Coen, 26, and Jessika Kennedy, 25, were travelling in.

The couple had got engaged three weeks earlier. They were returning to Pretoria from White River on the N4.

Malele was driving in the opposite direction, lost control of his vehicle and crashed into their car. Both died instantly. Malele sustained only minor injuries and, according to witnesses, joked with police who were at the scene.

Coen’s mother, Ursula Kors, approached AfriForum after she established that the docket had gone missing from the Silverton police station.

“AfriForum’s private prosecution unit worked closely with Col Werner Everson from the Silverton detective branch and Sgt Piet Ferreira from the Sinoville detective branch to recompile the docket so that the accused can be prosecuted,” AfriForum said.

Malele’s defence counsel asked the court to impose a sentence of correctional supervision, while the state proposed imprisonment of five years.

In handing down judgment, magistrate Kallie Bosch rejected both proposals as inappropriate.

“It is quite clear this was very traumatic for the deceased’s family. The court has a duty to send a message that people who commit such crimes, such as drinking and driving under the influence, must be severely punished,” Bosch said.

Head of the private prosecution unit Gerrie Nel said the unit’s involvement in the case was another example of the failure of the criminal justice system.

He said what was most concerning was that the docket went missing.

“This is simply unacceptable, but it is something the unit is seeing far too often in cases where it appears the accused person is being shielded from prosecution,” Nel said.

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