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North West High Court visits Coligny teen’s murder scene

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The North West High Court on Monday did an inspection in loco of the crime scene where Coligny teenager Matlhomola Mosweu was allegedly killed.

Pieter Doorewaard, 26, and Phillip Schutte, 34, are facing charges of murder, intimidation, kidnapping, unlawful possession of firearm, unlawful possession of ammunition, theft and pointing of a firearm for killing the teen, allegedly because he stole sunflowers.

Bonakele Pakisi, who witnessed the incident, pointed out the scene to Judge Ronald Hendrick as well as the sunflower field near where he allegedly saw the two farm workers throwing Mosweu out of a moving van on April 20, 2017.

He said he heard a boy screaming: “Mama [mother] help I am dying”.

He explained that he was walking near a farm house near the sunflower field when he saw the two dumping Mosweu’s body. When they realised he had seen them, they picked up the deceased, loaded him onto the back of the van and then confronted Pakisi, asking if he had seen what happened.

Pakisi said he told the accused he hadn’t seen anything, but they put him on the back of the bakkie and drove around with him and threatened him.

They eventually drove to a dam where they pointed a gun at him, made him drink alcohol and ordered him to run in front of a moving bakkie while they fired shots around him.

He said he vomited and collapsed and was then left there. Pakisi said Mosweu was lying at the back of the van the entire time.

Pakisi said the pair took his cellphone and on April 21 arrived at his home and told him not to tell the police or anyone else what had happened.

The court conducted an inspection in loco after the defence applied for it on Friday. They wanted to inspect the scene before cross examining Brigadier Clifford Kgorane.

The State alleges the two assaulted Mosweu and threw him out of a moving van, on April 20, 2017 at Rietvlei farm near Coligny after accusing him of stealing sunflowers from their employer Pieter Karsten’s sunflower plantation. Karsten is Doorewaard’s uncle.

The pair has pleaded not guilty to the seven charges against them.

Mosweu’s death, known as “sonneblom (sunflower) murder”, triggered violent mass protests that left a trail of destruction in the small maize growing town and divided the community along racial lines.

Members of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) dressed in the party’s red regalia, and carrying sunflowers, joined the inspection.

Doorewaard and Schutte are standing trial at the North West High Court in Mahikeng.

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