Swellendam - Friend and colleague Riaan Scheepers told the Swellendam Circuit Court on the opening day that Johannes Kana had told him he had committed the crime.
Scheepers, who worked as a fireman with Kana in Bredasdorp, said he had last seen Anene Booysen leaving with Kana on the night she was raped and disembowelled.
Kana appeared on charges of rape and murder on the first day of the trial on Monday.
According to Scheepers, he and a few friends, including Kana, drank some beers and Amarula while smoking a hookah pipe on the evening of February 1.
The group decided to go to Kallies pub at 1am where Scheepers’s girlfriend was waiting.
When they arrived at Kallies, Anene was sitting at the same table as Scheepers’s girlfriend.
After having more drinks, Scheepers had an argument with his girlfriend outside the pub.
Later, he returned to the pub where he passed Anene and Kana as they walked towards Asla Site B.
“The last time I saw Anene she was with Kana. On Saturday, I heard the news that Anene had been raped and mutilated.
“I phoned him (Kana), but his aunt answered the phone. I called a second time and this time his aunt’s daughter picked up. I told her that she must tell him to come to me as soon as she sees him.”
An hour later, Kana allegedly arrived at Scheepers’s girlfriend’s house.
“He asked why I phoned. I asked him where he left Anene the previous day. I told him I that heard she was raped and mutilated and that my girlfriend’s parents had left to the hospital to see whether it was her.”
Scheepers told the court that Kana looked shocked and said that he was shocked to hear it.
“He told me that he had seen Anene’s foster mother and another man. He whistled to them and said that Anene was drunk.”
Later, while Scheepers was at the Bredasdorp police station, he saw Kana in handcuffs and being led out by a police officer.
“The captain said to him: ‘Tell him what you told me’.
“He (Kana) said he was sorry that he did it. That it was him.”
The testimony came as a surprise to defence attorney Pieter du Toit who asked for an adjournment so that he could confer with Kana.
The matter was then adjourned for the day.
Earlier, Amos Frederick Murtz, the first witness to take the stand, told the court he worked as a security guard at the construction site where he found Anene.
He was working at the site when he heard a scream and called his supervisor who later called the police.
“When the police arrived they went between the houses and found a woman lying there. Between her legs there were intestines.”
Constable Ricardo Murtz, who was dispatched to the scene with a colleague, said his first observation was that Anene was lying on her back and her trousers were pulled down to her knees.
“Her tracksuit pants were down to her knees and she looked in a serious condition. Both her eyes were swollen shut and I saw blood behind her legs.
“She turned on to her stomach and I saw a stripe of blood. While she lay there, I tried to talk to her.”
Murtz added Anene tried to stand and that her legs were folded in.
“I saw something that looked like intestines. It was hanging next to her legs. She sat up and I told her to remain lying down, so she did. She was in too much pain and moaned the whole time.”
He told his colleague to call the ambulance.
When an ambulance arrived, paramedics placed Anene at the back of the ambulance and placed her intestines inside a bag.
He told the court they left the scene and followed the ambulance to hospital without taking any evidence from the scene.
“At the scene, there was a small glass, a striped (peaked) cap and a pair of shoes.
“It was scattered a metre from where Anene was lying.”
A paramedic picked up the shoes and cap while the police fetched the glass from the scene the following day.
Anene died in Tygerberg Hospital on the afternoon of February 2.
The trial continues on Tuesday.
Cape Argus