Pretoria - The brothers of the late Anisha van Niekerk and her wife Joey van Niekerk testified that they became suspicious of the alleged mastermind behind the double killings, Koos Strydom, during their frantic search for the two women.
Wynand van Niekerk told Gauteng High Court, Pretoria Judge Bert Bam that Strydom’s story simply did not add up. At first he said he was also looking for the two 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 he saw them that morning in a strange car, at a garage in Mooinooi, Joey’s brother-in-law Kobus Payne testified.
Anisha’s brother Wynand said he too became suspicious as Strydom kept adding to his story.
The two men were the first two witnesses called to the stand yesterday, during the double-murder and rape trial of Strydom, 54, his wife Mercia Strydom, 23 and three co-accused, Aaron Sithole, 26, Jack Sithole, 19 and Alex Modau, 37. They are facing 13 charges, to which they had pleaded not guilty.
The December 2017 murders of the attractive blonde couple rocked the small town of Mooinooi, near Rustenburg. This was especially so as the killings were extremely brutal.
It is claimed that the women were repeatedly raped, tortured and hanged by their necks. Their bodies were later burnt.
Only the remains of Anisha could be identified by the police, although the cause of her death could not be established.
It is alleged 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.
Payne testified that they had arranged to meet at 1pm that day at the funeral parlour in Pretoria, but the women did not pitch up.
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 or four kilometres away.
He said he took the phones to them and found the women 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.
Van Niekerk said the more he spoke to Strydom, the stranger the story became. The amounts which he claimed he gave the women in cash changed as he went along and CCTV footage did not show the women were at the garage at all. .
Van Niekerk said his sister would not have accepted R1m in cash on a Sunday, as she was a good businesswoman.