Deon Stein, Marcus Maleta, Dirk Kleinhans and Hennie Botha died when their cash-van was torched near Marken by some 22 men -- and at least two of of the suspects reportedly are former Koevoet members…
Polokwane/Pietersburg. December 21 2009 - The parents of murdered cash-van guard Deon Stein, 20, killed by a huge armed gang near Marken, Limpopo on September 29 2006 – amongst the arrested suspects purportedly were ex-members of Koevoet , the 1,000-member SA Police’s Namibian counter-insurgency squad -- are getting ‘gatvol’ about the constant postponements in the accused men’s trial.
Is everybody scared of conducting this case -- or what is going on?
Last Friday, Advocate Jacques Pienaar couldn’t appear due to ‘deaths in his family,’ the court was told. In June 2008, the trial was postponed becau
se Hettie Groenewald, legal representative for two defendants, handed in a medical certificate claiming she was under psychiatric care: the court proceedings were disrupted when Groenewald, representing two of the accused Alpheus Msiza, 30, and Kenneth Moitshela, 35, the only two accused who had been granted bail (of R10,000), let the state prosecutor advocate JP Marais know that she had been under treatment at the Crescent Clinic in Randburg for psychiatric treatment since May 22 and would remain there until June 18 2008 - according to a medical certificate handed in at the court. After this June 2008 postponement, Dirk Kleynhans's widow Colette reportedly told the news media that "can't believe how much time has already been wasted with this court case"; and Hennie Botha's mother Elize van Rensburg also asked whether there ‘would ever be an end to the case.’ Judge M W Msimeki has had to repeatedly postponed the case.
“Ons is
al verby gatvol,’ said the young murdered security guard’s mom Elise outside the high court after the case was postponed once again, this time to 4 January 2010. Mrs Stein and her husband Rex had taken special leave to attend the trial, which was scheduled to take all week.
- Security guard Stein, his three colleagues Marcus Malete (24), Dirk Kleinhans (28) and Hennie Botha (22) were torched to death after the gang poured petrol over their SBV-cash-transit van and set them alight while enroute from Pietersburg to Ellisras/Lephalale after the van was pushed off and overturned on the road between Marken and Baltimore.
A farmer from a nearby farm still managed to rescue Mr Stein from the burning van but the young Afrikaner died shortly afterwards from smoke-inhalation, reports Beeld.