Pretoria - The gardener of murdered Mooinooi couple Anisha and Joey van Niekerk said he was scared of Koos Strydom, the alleged mastermind behind the gruesome killings.
Zagaria Molepolle, who yesterday took the stand against Strydom, his wife Mercia and three co-accused, pointed his head towards where Strydom sat in the dock and told the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria: “I am fearful of him. I am scared.”
The State claimed that Strydom orchestrated the cruel death which was meted out to the Van Niekerks during December 2017.
It is claimed the women were lured to Strydom’s plot, where they were allegedly forced to sign a document in which they sold their land to him. It is claimed they were forced to hand over their pin numbers for their bank accounts and that they were then tied up in a container.
Further allegations include that Strydom, 52, and his wife, 23, watched as co-accused, Aaron Sithole, 26, Jack Sithole, 19, and Alex Modau, 37, repeatedly raped the women.
The women were allegedly then hanged by their necks and their bodies apparently set alight.
Only the remains of Anisha could be identified by the police, although the cause of her death could not be established. The remains of Joey could not be identified. Anisha’s white vehicle was later found, burnt out, near Magaliesberg.
The women disappeared on December 10. Their remains were only discovered some days later.
Molepolle testified that he saw
Anisha driving past his house on their plot in her car. He could not see who was with her, but that was the last time he saw her. He went about his duties on the plot the next morning, when Mercia arrived and gave him a set of spare keys for the Van Niekerk’s home.
Molepolle said he refused to take them, as there was no one in the house. Her husband Koos arrived later.
Molepolle said he could see the man was angry. “He gave me the keys and instructed me to fetch Joey’s cellphone from the charger in the house.”
Molepolle said he was afraid of Strydom and he did as he was told.
He said he had no idea why Strydom had a set of spare keys, as the women usually asked him (Molepolle) to take care of the animals when they went away.
The girlfriend of Aaron Sithole, Mokosi Modau, took the stand and testified about their movements on the Sunday when the women disappeared. She was not aware of the killings, but she told the court how all the accused were together on the Sunday at the Van Niekerk’s plot, from where Strydom ran a panel beating shop. At some stage all the accused left in a white car, but she could not confirm whether it was Anisha’s vehicle.
She said only Strydom and his wife returned to the panel beating shop.
She left with them to go to Strydom’s plot, but Modau said that en route they stopped at a garage, where Strydom’s wife had a 20-litre can filled with petrol.
Modau told how she went along when some of the accused went on
a shopping spree two days later,
using two bank cards. When she asked to whom the cards belonged to, she was told “it was stolen cards from white owners”.
Modau said the spree stopped when one of the accused yet again went to withdraw money. “He came back to say the machine ate the card.”
The police later arrived at her house where her boyfriend Sithole and her uncle Jack Sithole were. When they saw the police, they ran away, but they were later arrested.
(Proceeding)