Pretoria - The brothers of Anisha van Niekerk and her wife Joey van Niekerk testified how they became suspicious of the alleged mastermind behind the double killings, Koos Strydom, during their frantic search for the two missing women.
Wynand van Niekerk told Gauteng High Court, Pretoria Judge Bert Bam that Van Niekerk’s story simply did not add up.
At first he said that he was also looking for the women, as they had signed a document in which they had sold their plot to him and he wanted to take it to the lawyers to officiate. But in the same breath he said that he saw them that same morning in a strange car, at a garage in Mooinooi, Joey’s brother-in-law, Kobus Payne testified.
Anisha’s brother, Wynand van Niekerk, said he too became suspicious as Strydom kept on adding to his story.
The two men were the first two witnesses who were called to the stand on Tuesday, during the double murder and rape trial of Strydom, 54, his
young wife Mercia Strydom, 23 and three co-accused, Aaron Sithole, 26, Jack Sithole, 19 and Alex Modau, 37.
Video: Zelda Venter
They are facing 13 charges in total, to which they have pleaded not guilty.
The December 2017 murders of the blonde couple rocked the small town of Mooinooi, near Rustenburg. This was especially so as the murders were extremely brutal.
It is claimed that the women were repeatedly raped, tortured and hung by their necks. Their bodies were later burnt. Only the remains of Anisha could be identified identified by the police, although the cause of her death could not be established. The remains of Joey could
not be identified.
It is claimed that Strydom forced them to sign an agreement to sell their land to him, but that the plan was to kill them afterwards. It is said that he called in the help of his co-accused to assist him in the killings.
It is not yet clear how the Van Niekerks landed up at Strydom’s nearby smallholding, where it is alleged that they were murdered.
Joey’s father passed away a few days prior to the killings and the couple were due to identify his body in the morgue on Monday December
11, 2017. Payne testified that they had arranged to meet at one that afternoon at the funeral parlor in Pretoria, but the women did not
pitch.
He became worried as they could not reach them by phone and he decided to drive to their home. Payne said he found Strydom and his wife at
their panel beating workshop which they ran from the women’s plot.
Strydom gave him the keys to the women’s home and said they had asked him to look after the premises. Strydom also told him that they had
phoned him that morning from a strange number to bring their cellphones to them as they were at the garage in Mooinooi, which was
only about three of four kilometers away.
He said he took the phone to them and found them in a strange bakkie, alongside two other women.
Payne said Strydom also mentioned that he gave the women R1-million in cash the previous day as payment for the plot deal.
But he said the more he spoke to Strydom, the more he became suspicious of him.