Johannesburg - They’ve described it as “torture”; they’ve described it as “painful and taxing”.
And on Monday, after seven years, 19 postponements and 10 high court judges, the relatives of slain Soweto sisters just could not hold back.
Tempers flared, with one relative facing possible arrest after shouting “This is unacceptable!” and storming out of court.
He had just heard that Frans Seroba, the man accused of gunning down his mother and aunt, would be free to roam the streets of Joburg yet again.
“This is unacceptable! How does the justice system expect us to respect it when it does not respect us,” shouted an angry Mosetlha Makwati before storming out of Judge Majake Mabesele’s courtroom.
His sister soon followed, tears streaming down her face.
Their mother, Sarah Makwati, was gunned down at her workplace in Braamfontein in January 2007, allegedly by Seroba.
He had allegedly shot and killed his wife Martha at their home in Buccleuch, Sandton, first.
Seroba then took their children, then 10-year-old twin boys, to his mother’s home in Diepkloof, Soweto, before driving to Sarah’s workplace.
He has been out on bail since, and every time he appeared in the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria, his case would be postponed.
Family members arrived at the Palm Ridge Magistrate’s Court, where the case is now being heard, hoping Monday’s proceedings would signal the beginning of the end to a long painful journey.
But that was not to be, with State prosecutor Leonie Makoko’s announcement that the case would be postponed again.
Infuriated at Makwati’s outburst, Judge Mabesele ordered a police officer to run after him and arrest him.
When Makoko tried to explain that Makwati was one of the dead women’s relatives, the judge said he did not care and found it unacceptable that he was shouted at as he knew nothing about the case.
Makwati’s father, Basemang, had to apologise on behalf of his son.
“We understood that Seroba should receive a fair trial, but this is too much,” he said.
Pretoria News