Yvonne Beetge, who was sentenced last week to 15 years in jail for murdering her former fiancé, received good news on Monday when the Pretoria High Court granted her leave to appeal against her conviction.
But the bad news is that she will have to remain behind bars until her appeal before a full Bench (three judges) has been concluded.
Giving his reasons for denying her bail, Judge Mahomed Ismail said there was a 15-year sentence hanging over the head of the 45-year-old woman, and her bail would be paid by other people as she is cash-strapped.
The judge also pointed out that Beetge lived with her fiancé Bokkie Grundlingh in Polokwane in 2008.
She is now living with her new fiancé in his home in Bronkhorst-spruit.
The judge said it may be that things did not work out between them and that she would then have to find somewhere else to live.
Beetge, who was dressed in prison gear on Monday – a white T-shirt and jeans – and sat between two prison warders, said through her advocate that her family was able to get R20 000 together to pay for her bail.
While she cried bitterly last week and clung to her fiancé before she was taken down to the holding cells following her sentencing, a demure-looking Beetge remained dry eyed yesterday on hearing that she will have to remain in prison for now.
When he heard that Beetge’s family could raise R20 000 for her bail, Judge Ismail commented that people who have committed fraud get bail of up to R1 million.
However, people who have committed murder, either get free bail or a very low amount is set. “It has been my sad experience that life seems less valuable,” he said.
Beetge asked the court for leave to appeal against her murder conviction. She argued that the court had erred in finding that she delivered the fatal shot which killed Grundlingh in November 2008.
She insisted he had shot himself and that it was a clear-cut case of suicide. She said earlier that Grundlingh, a former soldier, used to walk around the house, wielding a gun. He often had nightmares and on the night of the incident, he read out a typed suicide note to her.
He wanted to shoot himself and she tried to take the firearm away from him, she said.
Two shots went off, hitting him on the right side of his body.
The third and fatal shot that hit him on the left side of his head, went off while her eyes were closed and her hand was on his, she said.
But the court found that Grundlingh was not the author of the suicide note, as it was riddled with spelling mistakes, while he was meticulous with grammar.
It was also found that although he might have fired the first two shots, it was impossible that he could have fired the third one.
A State ballistics expert testified earlier that Grundlingh was right- handed.
It was thus impossible that he could have wounded himself on the left side of his head.
A defence expert, who earlier gave a demonstration in court to try to prove his point, said it was somehow possible that Grundlingh could have shot himself on the left side of his head. The court rejected this possibility.
But Judge Ismail said yesterday the test was not whether Beetge would succeed with her appeal, but whether there is a reasonable possibility that she might succeed and that he may have erred in his judgment.
“This is about a person’s life, not about my ego,” the judge said. - Pretoria News