The Port Elizabeth High court handed down lengthy sentences to three members of the Upstand Dogs gang.
Cedric Johnson, Rodwell Peters and Oscar Alexander were each sentenced to 25 years in prison on Thursday for various charges including kidnapping, unlawful possession of a firearm and murder after being arrested during a housebreaking in Seaview in 2013.
Colonel Priscilla Naidu said the three men broke into a house and threatened a 37- year-old woman at gunpoint.
She managed to hit the panic button which alerted a security company, whose officer responded within minutes and found the suspects still in the house
The security guard shot dead the fourth suspect, Alan De Sousa, who had pointed a gun at him.
Although the accused did not kill their accomplice De Sousa, the judge found them guilty of murder as they should have foreseen the possibility that someone could be shot during their attempt to rob the complainant at gunpoint.
