Melanie Gosling
A FARMWORKER described in a Worcester Regional Court yesterday how he had seen assault accused Wilhem Treurnicht repeatedly kick Flippie Engelbrecht in his head as the youth lay on the ground in a wine cellar.
Treurnicht, manager of Rietvallei Wine Estate is charged with assaulting Engelbrecht and his father Flip Engelbrecht in January 2008.
Flippie is now blind and an epileptic.
Jan Beukman, a worker on Rietvallei, where the alleged assault took place, said he had gone into the farm’s new cellar to fetch a broom.
“Flip was lying on the ground and Mr Dozey (Treurnicht) was kicking him repeatedly. He was kicking him with his right foot on his head,” said Beukman.
He had appealed to Johnny Burger, who was also at the scene, to make Treurnicht stop kicking Flippie. Burger, the late owner of Rietvallei, died on his farm in September. It appeared he had committed suicide.
Beukman was asked if he had seen any injuries on Flippie after Treunicht had kicked him. He replied that he had not.
Earlier yesterday Engelbrecht’s mother, Katrina, took the stand. Treunicht’s advocate Pieter Botha grilled her on discrepancies in her three different versions of what had happened to her son. One version was contained in a video made by Freedom Trust secretary Carina Papenfus, who had interviewed the mother and son on camera.
The second version was the statement Engelbrecht had made under oath at the Sea Point Police station, and the third was the version she gave in court yesterday.
Inconsistencies between the three versions included the date on which her son was allegedly assaulted. Engelbrecht said in her statement to police that her son had been assaulted in January 2010, but in court yesterday she said it was in January 2008.
She told the court yesterday she had come across her son and her husband on the day of the alleged assault walking near Bon Courage, but on the video she said she had returned home to find them there.
Under cross-examination, Engelbrecht maintained that the true version events was the one in court.
She explained the inconsistencies between what she has said in court and what she had said in the video was because “everything happened very suddenly” and also because Papenfus had told her to be brief.
She also said she had merely been explaining to Sea Point police and had not given her statement under oath.
“Many things happened to me that year Flippie was assaulted and my youngest child was killed in a car accident.
“My mind was confused.”
She said that before the court case yesterday she had had time to sit quietly and gather her thoughts and that was why what she had said in court was the truth,
“And I just spoke to Carina to get rid of the heartbreak,” she said.
The case continues today.