Pretoria - The elderly mother of murdered former heavyweight boxing champion Corrie Saunders, Alida Saunders, cried bitterly as she hugged the investigating officer and prosecutor following the conviction of her son’s three killers in the High Court in Pretoria on Tuesday.
It’s been a harrowing 28 months, especially for his mother, the boxer’s brother, Mike, told the Pretoria News. “We are extremely happy and relieved that the three were convicted. We hope they never again see the light of day outside jail.”
Mike said his mother, who was part of the guests robbed at a family birthday party in Brits in 2012 – during which Saunders was killed – is battling to come to terms with what happened. “She is not doing very well. She battles to talk about what happened and cannot look at pictures of Corrie. We just hope the end of this trial will help to make things a bit easier for her,” he said.
Asked whether he will ever forgive the three for killing the boxing legend, Mike said: “I know I must forgive, but it is a long process. I am not there yet.”
Judge Ferdi Preller on Tuesday convicted Zimbabwean nationals Paida Fish, Samuel Mabena and Chris Moyo on an array of robbery and attempted murder charges, as well as the murder of Saunders.
He found beyond any doubt that they were part of the gang that shot Saunders in September 2012 at the Thatch Haven Country Lodge, outside Brits. Saunders and other family members were attending his nephew’s 21st birthday party at the time. Saunders died the next day in the Kalafong Hospital. He was gunned down while trying to protect his daughter Marinique, then 16, from the robbers.
During the trial she testified that her father moved in front of her to protect her. After he was shot, he managed to pull her to the ground.
Marinique, one of the first witnesses to take the stand, testified that she, her father and her cousin were standing near the entrance to the boma, when three men stormed in and started shooting. The trio ordered guests to “lie down” and demanded their handbags, cell-phones and cash.
After the wounded Saunders pulled his daughter to the ground, he told her to pretend she was dead. She said while lying face down on the ground, shots rang out around her.
She then noticed her father had been shot in the arm and that he was bleeding profusely.
It later emerged that he was shot through the arm and that the bullet penetrated his stomach.
The robbers got a fright when a car alarm went off in a nearby parking area and fled.
The trio were arrested days later in the Oukasi informal settlement outside Brits. They denied any knowledge of the incident and claimed they had alibis. But Judge Preller found none of these alibis could be confirmed.
The three were also found in possession of some of the victims’ belongings, including handbags, a purse, watch and cellphones.
According to evidence presented to court some of them, shortly after the robbery, placed their SIM cards in the cellphones robbed that night.
Fish, the only accused to take the stand in mitigation of sentence, asked Judge Preller to have mercy on him. He said he was “God fearing” and a churchgoer who had “messed-up” his life. But Fish was adamant that he was definitely not a murderer. He was a “born-again Christian” who came to South Africa to try to support his poor family.
Fish, who admitted he is a man who likes alcohol, said he was allowed to drink during the week, but not on Sundays. The prosecution, however, noted that the only thing he managed to do in South Africa was to bring misery to a family.
Fish was told by the State that Saunders’s two children, aged 12 and 16 at the time of his murder, now had to cope without a father.
It was also said that the actions of Fish and his fellow Zimbabweans nearly caused anarchy in the township where they lived at the time, as the community was fed-up with foreign nationals causing trouble.
The trio is expected to be sentenced on Wednesday.
Pretoria News