Cape Town – The sister of Reshall Jimmy, who burnt to death after his Ford Kuga caught alight near George over three years ago, admitted yesterday it was "very difficult to be sitting in court and hearing how he died" on the day he would have turned 37.
An inquest into what led to him being burnt to death in a Ford Kuga got under way in the Western Cape High Court on Monday.
The family is desperate for closure after the National Prosecuting Authority declined to prosecute anyone for his death on the grounds of insufficient evidence.
Reshall was found dead inside his vehicle outside the Fairy Knowe Hotel in Wilderness on December 4, 2015 after a huge blaze was put out.
Renisha Jimmy told the SABC outside court yesterday: “It's a third year and yes today it's his birthday and it's very difficult to be sitting in court and hearing how he died, what's happened, instead of celebrating this day.
"We have to be fighting for him to get justice, very difficult to be reliving it over and over again.”
Between November 2015 and December 2017‚ 72 Kugas reportedly caught fire on South Africa's roads. Of the 72‚ six either caught alight or sustained engine and electronic failure after undergoing recalls.
Lawyers representing the Ford Motor company say there is no evidence that the company was responsible for the death of Reshall Jimmy.
Presenting his opening remarks in court, Ford legal representative Andre Bezuidenhout said for more than three years Ford has been subjected to all sorts of innuendo and media speculation when in fact there is no evidence the car manufacturer was responsible. He said the media had portrayed Ford in a negative light.
He said investigating officer Ryan Petersen had reacted to reports of a house on fire and shots being fired when he responded to the scene.
He has also raised questions about whether some of the items retrieved from the burnt-out shell of the vehicle might have been responsible since some were flammable. This included hand sanitiser, a long braai lighter, two cellphone batteries and a cigarette lighter.
A display containing some of the innards of a vehicle was glued to a board for later reference, and a television set was ready to show the hundreds of pictures and cellphone footage taken while the car was burning, News24 reported.
Judge Robert Henney is presiding over the inquest and stressed that the point was not to find anybody guilty but to examine the available evidence and decide whether there was any prima facie evidence to support a case of murder or culpable homicide.
Family legal representative, AfriForum's Gerrie Nel, said they view Ford as a suspect in the matter. AfriForum is acting pro bono on behalf of the Jimmy family.
"Ford is doing what they can to create lots of dust and not deal with the specific technical evidence," Nel said.
He said the police were correct to not follow "wild evidence" about Reshall visiting a casino and that it "is a lie" that a witness saw Reshall being shot.
George detective Constable Thembekile Matwa, who came under fire from Bezuidenhout over his handling of the case, was taken to task for not taking witness statements on the night that Reshall died and allegedly not following orders to get further affidavits or witness statements.
He had decided to get statements the following day from the people who had stopped to help.