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 on Wednesday 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 deaths which were meted out to the Van Niekerks during December 2017.
It is claimed that the women were lured to Strydom’s plot, where they were allegedly forced to sign a document in which they sold their plot to him. It is claimed that 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 hung by their necks and their bodies were apparently set alight afterwards.
Only the remains of Anisha could be identified 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 Magaliesburg. The women disappeared on Sunday December 10, 17 and 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 had seen 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 it, as there were no one in the house.
Her husband Koos, however, arrived a bit later and 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 inside the house.
Molepolle said he was at the time also 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.
Proceeding