The body of elderly Willie Pretorius, who was severely tortured before he was stabbed to death, was only discovered hours later after his daughter could not get hold of him and alerted police.
Constable Emmanuel Makena told the Pretoria High Court on Wednesday that he had discovered the body of 64-year-old Pretorius in his bed.
He was lying on his stomach, while the murder weapons – a knife and a broken whisky bottle, covered in blood – were found on the kitchen floor.
Makena took the stand in the trial of Petrus Moloko, 23, and Johnson Ramoree, 34, who is apparently a pastor. The two have pleaded not guilty to breaking into Pretorius’s Waverley home on the night of August 23, 2009, and murdering him.
Their co-accused, Teko Radebe, 26, this week pleaded guilty to the murder and robbery and was sentenced to an effective 22 years in jail.
Judge Moses Mavundla, who sentenced Radebe, expressed shock at how Pretorius was tortured.
One of his fingers was cut off and pictures of his corpse showed his intestines hanging out. His face was mutilated beyond recognition.
One of Pretorius’s daughters suspected something was wrong when she went to visit her father and saw through the window that the television set was missing.
She tried to phone her father, but he did not answer.
Makena said that while patrolling the area, he received a call early in the evening of August 23, 2009, alerting him to a housebreaking.
He went to the scene and found the doors to the house locked, he said.
He kicked open the door and found the lounge in disarray.
He discovered a knife and bottle covered with blood in the kitchen.
As he walked down the passage, it was littered with beer bottles.
Things in the main bedroom were “upside down” and he eventually noticed a man on the untidy bed, Makena said.
“When I took a closer look, I saw he had a tie wound tightly around his neck. Both his hands and feet were also bound by ties.
“He was lying face down on the bed and there was blood on the floor.”
Makena alerted his superiors.
It is claimed that the robbers stole a cellphone, appliances and Pretorius’s car.
A Mamelodi woman, Elizabeth Mawela, testified that two men, whom she identified in court as Teko and Ramoree, came to her house to sell her a cellphone. She said she knew Ramoree as he was the local pastor and she believed him when he said the phone was not stolen.
She bought it for R150, but it later emerged that was Pretorius’s phone.
Ramoree, through his advocate, admitted he sold the phone to the woman, but said he would later explain how the phone came into his possession.
(Proceeding) - Pretoria News