Pretoria - Geologist Cobus Prinsloo was still smiling as he walked down to the holding cells, seconds after being sentenced to 25 in jail.
He even winked at those in the public gallery.
True to the word of Pretoria High Court Judge Moses Mavundla that wife killer Prinsloo had to “take his medicine with a smile”, the 66-year-old with a huge smile on his face hugged his family seconds after hearing his fate and making his way to the cells in the cellar of the court.
He will, however, at a later stage apply for leave to appeal against his murder conviction and subsequent sentence. His defence has prepared a 20-page document in this regard.
His advocate asked the judge to allow his client to remain on bail pending the application, but the State opposed this. After sentencing, the judge remarked that there was no need for Prinsloo to receive preferential treatment.
A lengthy bail application which ran into last night also did not bring Prinsloo any relief and the judge ruled that Prinsloo would remain behind bars while fighting further “to prove his innocence”.
He told the court he had to be released, as he had to work and provide for his two sons - aged 18 and 22. “I also want to go on living my life… In jail you merely exist, you don’t live.”
But Judge Mavundla said there were no exceptional circumstances warranting Prinsloo to be released on bail.
True to his earlier form, the smile remained on Prinsloo’s face as he was escorted to the cells to spend his first night in prison.
Prinsloo, 66, for the duration of the trial did not sit in the dock as accused normally do, but sat on the seats reserved for counsel as he has a hearing problem and it was closer to his advocate and the prosecution.
Unlike the man who actually killed air hostess Cordelia Prinsloo by hitting her on the back of her head with a garden spade, Prinsloo throughout the trial persisted that he had nothing to do with his former wife’s killing.
She was murdered by Prinsloo’s gardener, Lucas Moloi, on the morning of November 13, 2011, while she was watering plants on the plot north of Pretoria, which she owned together with Prinsloo. Cordelia stayed in a flat on the property and Prinsloo on weekends stayed in the main house. He stayed in a house in Montana during the week.
The plot had to be subdivided in terms of the divorce agreement, or Cordelia had to receive her share in cash. Prinsloo and his wife were apparently at loggerheads about sub-dividing the plot. Brief mention was also made during the trial by one of Cordelia’s family members about “R20 million stashed away somewhere only known to him and one of his sons, and which he did not want Cordelia to know about”. No further details were given about this.
Moloi earlier owned up to his part in the killing of Cordelia and he was sentenced to 18 years imprisonment. The judge accepted his version that Prinsloo promised him a house and R50 000 for killing her.
Moloi buried Cordelia in a flower bed on the plot. Her body was “discovered” two days later by Prinsloo.
The State this week said Moloi, like Cordelia, was a victim of Prinsloo. He fetched the former security guard at a mine in Rustenburg and promised him a brighter feature in Pretoria. Moloi ended up as a gardener and doing Prinsloo’s “dirty job” for him by killing his wife, the judge said.
Prinsloo earlier testified that Cordelia was “hit with a spade as if she was a rabbit.”
The judge said it seemed that the issue regarding the division of the plot was a source of major discontent between the former couple. “He then got her killed, and like a coward got Moloi to do his dirty work.” The judge added that in his view Cordelia was killed out of greed and bitterness Prinsloo harboured towards her.
He also said Prinsloo did not think twice to consider the consequences of having his wife murdered. He left their two sons without a mother and no amount of money could compensate them for this loss.
Asked whether he was satisfied with the sentence, Cordelia’s brother, George Schoonraad, said it was irrelevant. “The fact that Cobus was caught out, is more important to us as a family. It is difficult to forgive him…”
Pretoria News