MAHIKENG - Slain Coligny teenager Matlhomola Mosweu did not have space in the cab of the bakkie so he had to sit at the back, the North West High Court heard on Tuesday.
"The bakkie [van] was a single cab and there was no space for him, that is why he was at the back [loading base] of the bakkie," Phillip Schutte told the court.
He said the other reason Mosweu was put on the loading base of the van was because he had cooperated with them.
"He walked freely on his own from the maize field toward us, got into the bakkie on his own and when Pieter [Doorewaard] indicated to him to sit on the middle of the loading base of van, rather than sitting on the edge of the base," said Schutte.
His lawyer advocate Pieter Smit asked him why he did not sit with Mosweu at the back, he replied that he did not anticipate that Mosweu would attempt to run away.
Mosweu known as Faki was killed on April 20, 2017, allegedly by Pieter Doorewaard, 26, and Phillip Schutte, 34.
The State alleges the two assaulted Mosweu and threw him out of a moving van at Rietvlei farm near Coligny after accusing him and another teenager of stealing sunflower heads from their employer Pieter Karsten's sunflower plantation. Karsten is Doorewaard's uncle.
Testifying in his defence, Schutte said when they asked the boys what were they doing they dropped the sunflower heads and ran in different directions. Mosweu went into a maize field while the other unidentified boy ran back into the sunflower field.
Doorewaard and Schutte made a U-turn and saw Mosweu about 25 metres in the maize field, Doorewaard called him and he voluntarily walked towards them, when he tried to go through a fence, his clothes were caught by the fence and Doorewaard went to assist him.
The two walked to the van together and Mosweu got into the loading base but sat on the edge and Doorewaard showed him by a hand that he should sit in the middle of the van.
On their way to the Coligny police station, he saw movement in the dust through the left mirror of the vehicle and when he looked at the loading base Mosweu was not there.
"I screamed that the boy had jumped," he said, adding that he did not see Mosweu jumping from the van, which he said was driving at 60km/h.
He concluded that Mosweu had jumped as there was no other way he could fall from the moving van.
They stopped the van and found Mosweu injured, they searched their cellphones for emergency medical services but did not have contact details.
They saw two people coming from Scotland informal settlement and asked them to watch over him while they were going to report the incident at the police station and requested them to call an ambulance.
Schutte said Mosweu did not appear scared or frightened when he got into the van so he did not foresee that he would jump out of the moving van.
The case was rolled over to Wednesday.