Pretoria - Chaos broke out seconds after a judge sentenced three men – who killed an elderly couple for a mere R3.50 – when one of the murderers tried to crawl alongside the bench in the dock in a desperate bid to get to the holding cells and away from flashing cameras.
This, while another man’s lawyer tried to pull his client back into the dock to speak to him about a possible appeal application and the court orderlies were trying to pull him by the arm towards the cells.
The family of the victims Katrien and Chris Jooste stood watching the scene with tears in their eyes.
Daughter Belinda Jooste and her brother André Jooste hugged each other after Judge Lettie Malopa-Setshosa sentenced Victor Simango, Solomon Selekane and Collen Malopo to two life terms each on both murder counts.
As she read out the life sentences, relatives of the accused gasped.
Judge Malopa-Setshosa said the killers asked for mercy, claiming they were terribly sorry for being part of the gang that gunned down the couple in November 2011 as they were delivering cold meat to a spaza shop in Soshanguve. They maintained it was not them who pulled the trigger, but a fourth member of the gang who is still on the run.
The accused said the fact that they were in their early 20s when they committed the crimes should count in their favour. But the judge did not agree. “None of you have shown any remorse whatsoever. You are all relatively young, but it is the young who hold our country at ransom, committing these terrible crimes and terrorising communities. It is up to the courts to put a stop to this.”
The judge said not a day goes by without a robbery or murder being committed in the country.
“Being young does not give anyone the licence to terrorise the community. People embarking on this path must suffer the consequences of their actions,” she said.
Judge Malopa-Setshosa told the trio that the Jooste couple, both in their 60s, were murdered in a heinous and despicable manner, while they tried to make an honest living.
The pair were mugged a few weeks before their murder, while delivering goods in Soshanguve. Thus, Katrien had pepper spray with her while she waited for her husband in the car on that fateful day. As Chris walked back to the car, he was overpowered by a group of robbers who took his coins and then shot him. They went towards his wife and as she sprayed them with pepper spray, she too was shot.
The dying woman managed to phone her daughter Belinda for help. “Come quickly, we’ve been shot,” she said.
On day Belinda told the Pretoria News that day was the worst day in her life. “She could not tell me where she was, but I suspected where and I rushed to the scene.
“When I got there she and my dad had already been rushed to hospital. I only saw blood and their bakkie. I saw her cellphone on the ground. Why did they shoot them for R3.50?”
She got to the hospital as the ambulance arrived and tried to help her mother out.
“I did not realise she was dead. The doctor told me she had just died.”
When she turned towards her father, a doctor told her he was also dead.
Belinda said that day was her father’s last cold meat run, as he was going to give up the business.
“My mother did not want to go along that day, but my father assured her it would be the last time.
“The first time I saw the killers in court, I was so upset I just trembled. Now I only have an empty feeling. I’m no longer cross. I just want to understand why my parents were shot.”
Pretoria News