Coligny murder accused wanted to kill sole eyewitness, court hears

Phillip Schutte and Pieter Doorewaard during the inspection in loco of the murder scene earlier this week. Picture: ANA

Phillip Schutte and Pieter Doorewaard during the inspection in loco of the murder scene earlier this week. Picture: ANA

Published Mar 27, 2018

Share

Mahikeng - Two North West farm workers accused of killing a teenage boy in Coligny intended to kill the man who saw them, the North West High Court heard on Tuesday.

"They wanted to kill him, they took him [witness] to a remote area," Brigadier Clifford Kgorane told the court.

He was testifying in the murder trial of Pieter Doorewaard, 26, and Phillip Schutte, 34, accused of killing Matlhomola Mosweu, 16, of Scotland informal settlement near Coligny.

Kgorane told the court that he changed an inquest docket to murder after he had read the witness statement. The witness also took him to the crime scene, confirming his belief that the two farm workers should be investigated for murder.

"He took me and point all areas and also at a dam where they wanted to kill."

During an inspection in loco of the crime scene on Monday Bonakele Pakisi, who is in witness protection, said that the pair took him to a dam at Putfontein where they intended to kill him, but abandoned the notion when they realised they could be seen by people.

They took him back to the road, made him run in front of a van and fired shots at him, Pakisi said.

 

He said Mosweu was lying on the load base of the van the entire time.

The inspection in loco established that the accused drove a distance of 47,6km with Pakisi while Mosweu was lying in the van.

The State alleges Doorewaard and Schutte assaulted Mosweu and then threw him out of a moving van, on April 20, 2017 at Rietvlei farm near Coligny after accusing him of stealing sunflowers from their employer Pieter Karsten's sunflower plantation.

The State further alleges that the pair kidnapped the man who witnessed the incident and drove him around the farm, assaulted and threatened to kill him if he reported the incident, and also stole his cell phone and pointed a gun at him.

The accused have pleaded not guilty to the seven charges against them.

African News Agency/ANA

Related Topics: