by Tankiso Makhetha
Pretoria - Family and friends of slain Pretoria teenager Anika Smit can finally breathe a sigh of relief after a 24-year-old man was on Monday formally charged with her murder.
Andreas Johannes van Wyk appeared briefly in the Pretoria North Magistrate’s Court, where he was also charged with rape and mutilation.
Van Wyk handed himself over to the police on Friday, bringing what might be an end to a six-year riddle of the teen’s murder.
While in the dock, he seemed slightly nervous as magistrate Pierre Wessels read his rights to him.
Despite Van Wyk facing a charge of rape, Wessels allowed him to be identified in the media; the precedent was set when Anika’s ex-boyfriend Nico Venter and school mate Damian Treeby were previously identified.
Prosecutor Tania Carstens requested that the matter be postponed to allow the State sufficient time to complete its investigations and to do a profile on Van Wyk.
The State also wished to interrogate the information brought forward by Van Wyk, while also allowing the accused to appoint a lawyer.
Wessels postponed the matter to September 27 for Van Wyk to apply for bail.
Shortly after the proceedings ended, Anika’s father Johan Smit told journalists outside the court that it was an emotional day.
Speaking through his lawyer, Willem Koekemoer, Smit said: “We are glad that someone has come forward and taken responsibility, and from here on we will follow the court case and see what happens.”
Smit discovered the mutilated body of his 17-year-old daughter in 2010 after she had not gone to school on the day of her murder.
Her hands were cut off during the murder and the body riddled with stab wounds.
Her throat had been slit. Her missing body parts were never found, and she had been raped.
Venter echoed Smit’s sentiments, saying he was glad that finality could be brought to the matter.
“It has been an extremely traumatic experience, not only for me but for my family as well. To have been arrested in 2010 for something you didn’t do and being chased by the media was not a good experience at all,” Venter said.
Asked whether he knew the accused, Venter said: “I don’t recognise the guy at all and don’t know if I have ever seen him before.
"Hopefully now the case can go forwards and come to an end,” he added.
Venter was arrested and charged with the teen’s murder, but charges against him were withdrawn.
Smit, Venter and Treeby were named as persons of interest in an inquest instituted by Wessels.
During the inquest, Treeby – who was dubbed “Vampire”, a moniker he used on instant messaging application Mxit – gave testimony about Satanism and other occult activities.
His reputation of being affiliated with Satanism followed him, he said, when he transferred to Gerrit Maritz High School, the same school Anika attended at the time of her murder.