Mahikeng - Murdered Coligny teenager Matlhomola Mosweu's mother did not report him missing at the police station due to protests sweeping through Coligny, the North West High Court heard on Wednesday.
"It was bad, we could not walk in the streets. The community was protesting," Agnes Mosweu told the court.
She was responding to a question from Advocate Cecile Zwiegerlaar during cross-examination. Zwiegerlaar, for Doorewaard, had asked her whether she had reported her son missing to the police.
Agnes Mosweu was testifying for the State on the aggravating circumstances in the sentencing proceedings of Pieter Doorewaard, 27, and Phillip Schutte, 34, convicted of killing Matlhomola Mosweu on April 20, 2017, by pushing him from a moving van.
The sleepy maize producing town of Coligny was engulfed by mass violent protests following the death. Six houses were torched, several shops were looted, and three trucks were set alight.
On Tuesday, the former mayor of Coligny, Tshose Celo, told the court that the situation in Coligny was calm but could be worse than in 2017, if the court did not impose a life sentence on the men.
He said Mosweu's death had opened a huge gap between the white and the black communities in Coligny, adding that the trust between black and white communities were at their worst level in Coligny since Mosweu was killed.