Cape Town – The family of a university student, who was brutally stabbed to death by a self-confessed drug addict, is not ready to speak to her alleged killer’s mom.
This after Fatima Buxey, the mother of suspect Washief Buxey, 28, begged for forgiveness for her son, and expressed a wish to meet the family of murdered Stellenbosch University student Robyn Pearce.
Speaking on behalf of the Pearce family, their lawyer, Advocate William Booth, said the family was “too traumatised” and did not want to meet Fatima.
“The family is still grieving and suggesting meeting family of the accused is premature,” he said.
“That was their daughter he murdered, it wasn’t an accident.
“The family does not wish to enter into any discussion; she was a beautiful girl whose life was taken away unnecessarily.”
Booth also suggested that the murder case could be taking a “dramatic turn” once investigations are concluded.
In an exclusive interview with the Daily Voice this week, Fatima said although her son had “admitted” to stabbing Robyn, she asked the courts to show mercy on him.
Fatima Buxey has asked the court to show mercy on her murder accused son. Picture: Bertram Malgas
She said Washief, a construction worker, was her only child and has been addicted to tik for 12 years.
To the victim’s family, she said: “I want to say to the child’s family I am very sorry for what my child did.
“I know my words will not bring that child back.
“I feel the pain, what that mother had sacrificed for her child, and to think my child, due to drugs, I am not saying he is that person who won’t kill.”
On December 19, 2016 at the Cape Town Magistrate's Court, Buxey shocked everyone when he confessed to killing Robyn in her apartment in Sea Point.
He had been working with his uncle and entered the flat via a window.
Robyn, 20, a BA Humanities student from Durban, was stabbed multiple times.
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Items such as her cellphone were missing from the apartment.
Her body was discovered by a friend on December 2.
Buxey faces charges of robbery and murder, a Schedule 5 offence.
But Booth said this could be changed to premeditated murder, a Schedule 6 offence which carries a life sentence.
“We need to look at this, if this was premeditated murder and this could be life imprisonment,” Booth explained.
“If he had been working there, there might be a strong argument that he watched her [before killing her].”
“If he was on drugs, why did his uncle have him there?
“You don’t murder people to get money to get drugs. If he had been working surely he was being paid.
“If you need to feed your drug habit, you don’t have to kill.”
Fatima on Wednesday said she was willing to wait until the Pearce family was ready to meet her.
“I am a mother and that was another mother’s child, I still want to meet them,” she said.
Washief is back in court on March 28.