An Estcourt businessman convicted of murder and two attempted murders failed to report to the Pietermaritzburg High Court for sentencing on Thursday.
The attorney of Mohamed Azeem Yunus, 35, said he had tried unsuccessfully to contact him for two days to sign documents for lodging an application for appeal against his conviction and possibly his sentence.
On May 14 Judge Achmat Jappie convicted Yunus of the murder of Vinol Ramsarap and attempted murders of Sarah Sathar and her small daughter Abhida.
The judge found that Yunus had shot at the bakkie in which they were travelling on the Estcourt-Mooi River stretch of the N3 highway in May last year. All were from Estcourt.
Yunus had claimed that he was on his way to Pietermaritzburg for a medical consultation when he saw Sathar's bakkie going in the same direction.
Sathar was travelling to the Pietermaritzburg New Prison to visit her son, who was on trial for allegedly murdering Yunus' sister Safia,
Judge Jappie rejected Yunus' defence that he fired in self defence.
Yunus had contended that Sathar was predisposed to violence and had a firearm, and told the court that when he saw her with a gun - in his car mirror and through tinted windows - as their vehicles levelled, he feared she would shoot him.
He submitted that he shot the vehicle nine times in self defence.
The judge found that Sathar did not have a gun with her at the time.
On Thursday Judge Jappie ordered that Yunus be given two weeks to report to court and if he failed to do so his bail of R10 000 would be forfeited. - Sapa