A Congolese refugee has walked free from court after pleading guilty to assaulting a truck driver who filmed him and another African thug attacking two Afghan men in a road rage clash in Brisbane.
Echibaketa Byamungu, 22, carried out the vicious assault in Runcorn on August 27 last year, a day before he avoided jail for a savage attack on a bus driver that went viral and shocked the city.
Footage published last week by Noticer News shows Byamungu waving a hammer and holding a long machete on busy Persse Road, before he and another man, who police allege is Zambian immigrant Joseph Kalwisha, 24, spotted William Hughes recording them.
Hammer and machete-wielding African thugs turn on a truck driver who filmed them attacking two Afghans in a road rage clash in Runcorn, Brisbane.
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— N News (@NoticerNews) August 28, 2026
Brisbane Magistrates Court heard on Tuesday that Kalwisha allegedly ran over to the truck, grabbed the keys from the ignition, tried to stab Mr Hughes, bit him on the hand and arm, and tried to bite his face, The Courier Mail reported.
Byamungu then approached armed with a machete and tried to spear Mr Hughes through the window before the two other men involved in the initial dispute helped the truck driver restrain the African pair until police arrived.
Byamungu pleaded guilty to common assault, attempted armed robbery with personal violence, assault occasioning bodily harm, possessing a taser, and drug possession, and his lawyer told the court his client suffered trauma due to war in the Congo, but had completed school and had never been unemployed.
“It goes to the fact that he does have some good prospects for his future life,” he said.
Judge Deborah Holliday called the attack a “shocking example of public violence” and noted Byamungu wielded a machete on two occasions during the incident.
But she noted his remorse, early guilty pleas and brief criminal history, and sentenced him to three years’ jail with immediate parole, as he had already spent 370 days in custody on remand.
Mr Hughes told 9News outside court the attack had a “significant impact” on him, and appeared sceptical about Byamungu’s prospects of rehabilitation.
“He’s now out, and I guess we’ll see whether he reoffends,” he said.
Kalwisha, who was previously spared jail over an attempted home invasion in Logan after a magistrate heard he suffered from trauma as a result of experiencing “extreme violence” and hardship in Africa, will face court on September 17.
He is yet to enter a pleas to common assault, threatening violence, attempted armed robbery with personal violence, and assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
Brisbane bus driver is attacked by an African thug as horrified passengers watch on.
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— N News (@NoticerNews) June 21, 2025
A day before the attack Byamungu pleaded guilty in Brisbane Magistrates Court to assaulting the bus driver, and Kalwisha was filmed outside court abusing and threatening media while dressed in the same clothes as during the road rage incident.
On August 28, 2025, Byamungu appeared in the same court via videolink due to being refused bail over the road rage attack, where he was given a six-month sentence suspended for 18 months, and ordered to pay the bus driver $1,000 compensation.
Kalwisha was spared a conviction for the 2022 attempted home invasion and sentenced to 18 months’ probation with court-ordered counselling to deal with his PTSD by Magistrate Tracy Mossop, who urged him to make the most of his new life in Australia, the Albert & Logan News reported at the time.
“Why someone with that [traumatic] background would choose to bring more difficulty into their life when they have been gifted the benefit of living in this country, which is not ravaged by war and violence, I don’t understand,” she told him.
“Why would you bring violence into this country?
“Maybe you do have mental health issues and if that is the case I am going to make an order to have a special condition on your probation so that you are rehabilitated. Because it is important that you live your best life here, not your worst.”
In March that year Kalwisha was sentenced to prison for separate serious offending that occurred after the attempted home invasion.
Header image: Left, Byumungu leaving court (9News). Right, Byamungu during the road rage clash (Noticer News).
