Port Elizabeth - The mother of 12-year-old slain Aliya 'Angel' Tee put on a brave face in the Port Elizabeth High Court on Tuesday, as she pointed out the two men who allegedly killed her daughter.
The Grade 7 pupil and prefect at Strelitzia Primary School and was shot in the head at her home on June 7, last year.
Since their daughter's murder, Candice and her husband Edmund Tee were put in the National Prosecuting Authority's witness protection programme.
On Tuesday, the court was lined with members from the police's Tactical Response Team (TRT) while Candice took to the stand in a bullet proof vest to testify. Nealon Redhouse, 18, and Deon Harmse, 24, pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, attempted murder, housebreaking with intent to commit murder and unlicensed possession of firearm and ammunition.
The court ordered that no pictures be taken of State witnesses and only the media, court staff and family members were allowed to sit in on court proceedings as the trial unfolded on Tuesday.
Tee took the court back to the night she and her husband spent their final moments with their daughter at their family home in Barberry Drive, Bethelsdorp.
She said their house shop had closed at around 10pm and the family were spending quality time together lying on a bed in the couple's room.
She recalled Angel affectionately tickling her father and styling her hair with a pink ribbon before going to make some tea for her parents.
"Aliya said to me mummy look I want to use this pink ribbon for Uncle Gary's wedding. I said to her you look beautiful but it's a pity I can't take a picture on this Black Berry [phone]," Tee remembered.
After Angel had made the tea she came back to the room to sit on the bed with her parents. The mother and daughter then read a passage from the Bible.
"I said to her: 'Aliya you must go to bed', but she said that she wanted to [lie] a bit longer in my arms, while she was [lying] she kissed me on the cheek and said mummy I love you," Tee testified.
Tee told the court that Angel made her way to bed and after a short while she heard a loud bang, she then heard the dogs barking and another loud bang.
"On the second bang Edmund jumped up and ran to the front door. The banging noise continued and and the people outside said open up it's the police. Edmund couldn't open the door because the key was broken," she recalled.
"They said they were police but Edmund said they were not because he did not see lights. We took a couch and put it in front of the door to prevent them from coming in," she told the court. Tee said that she heard someone outside saying: "Sorry uncle it's your turn".
The mother then frantically sent a message to her family WhatsApp group saying: "Help help".
Tee said that her husband ran to the back door and before joining him she told Angel to stay in her room. As she left Angel's room, Candice said she saw her husband had opened the back door to have a look outside.
As she started to walk towards her husband, who was trying to push the back door closed with his right shoulder, Tee said that she saw Redhouse pointing a gun at her through a gap.
Tee said that Redhouse had lived just next door to them and she had watched him growing up -- she told the court that as a child he played with her then toddler son. She said she had cared for Redhouse and his mother was her friend.
"When Nealon was small I took him as my child and I didn't treat him any differently," she said before pointing him out as her daughter's alleged killer.
State Prosecutor Mujaahid Sandan asked Candice prior to the shooting incident when was the last time she had seen Redhouse.
Responding, she said in the afternoon before Angel's killing she was walking home from Desai's Grocery with her son when she saw Redhouse and "Kwas" who greeted them.
She proceeded to pointed out "Kwas" as Harmse sitting in the dock and said that she often saw him at a shop across the road from her house.
She is expected to continue with her testimony on Wednesday.